1. A. In this chapter, the following terms have the meanings indicated.

2. B. Terms Defined.

   1. (1) “Department” means the Maryland State Department of Education.
   2. (2) “Diagnostic survey” means an assessment tool that identifies areas of need within a student’s mastery of reading skills, foundational skills, or both to guide intervention.
   3. (3) “Evidence-based” means a program or practice that has demonstrated a statistically significant effect on improving student outcomes or other relevant outcomes based on well-designed and well-implemented studies, quasi-experimental studies, or correlational studies with statistical control for selection bias.
   4. (4) “Fluency” means reading accuracy and rate, including oral accuracy, prosody, intonation, and automaticity.
   5. (5) “IEP” means an individualized education program as defined and developed in accordance with COMAR 13A.05.01.03.
   6. (6) “IEP team” has the meaning stated in COMAR 13A.05.01.03.

   7. (7) Multi-Tiered System of Supports.

      1. (a) “Multi-tiered system of supports” means a proactive framework that aims to foster growth by ensuring that all students receive academic, behavioral, and social-emotional supports that they need to be successful.
      2. (b) “Multi-tiered system of supports” utilizes multiple data points to identify students requiring intervention through three tiers of support.
   8. (8) “Phonemic awareness” means the ability to distinguish, segment, blend, and manipulate phonemes in words.
   9. (9) “Phonics” means the study of letters and letter combinations and the relationship between the sounds that they represent.
   10. (10) “Phonological awareness” means a child’s ability to recognize and manipulate parts of oral language including syllables, onset-rime, and phonemes.
   11. (11) “Progress monitoring” means a measurement procedure used at specified time intervals to measure a student’s response to instruction or intervention.
   12. (12) “Rapid automatic naming” means how quickly individual students can name letters, digits, or symbols.
   13. (13) “Reading difficulties” means a student’s challenges with decoding, language comprehension, or both, which affect their ability to achieve grade-level reading proficiency.
   14. (14) “Screening instrument” means a brief, valid, and reliable measurement used to identify or predict whether a student may be at risk for poor learning outcomes.
   15. (15) “Student reading improvement plan” means a personalized plan to help students improve their reading skills that includes assessments, goals, instruction, and monitoring.
   16. (16) “Supplemental reading instruction” means evidence-based, sequential, systematic, explicit, and cumulative instruction or intervention to mastery of foundational reading skills, including phonological or phonemic awareness and processing, phonics, and vocabulary to support development of decoding, spelling, fluency, and reading comprehension skills to meet grade level curriculum.
   17. (17) “Tier I” means core instruction aligned with grade level standards.
   18. (18) “Tier II” means supplemental instruction intended for students who have not made sufficient progress through Tier I instruction.
   19. (19) “Tier III” means intensive supplemental instruction that is individualized based on severe and persistent learning or social-emotional needs.

Authority: Education Article, §4-136(i), Annotated Code of Maryland

Effective date: July 26, 2021 (48:15 Md. R. 593)

Regulations .01 — .08 repealed and new Regulations .01 — .07 adopted effective March 30, 2026 (53:6 Md. R. 291)