The Parent Access to Supplemental Supports, or PASS, program offers $400 grants to third graders who didn’t pass the STAAR reading exam. Texas lawmakers created the program last year as a part of House Bill 2. The program launches this fall.
The program is open to students in Texas public schools, including charter schools, who scored “Did not meet grade level” on the 2026 STAAR third-grade reading test. Students who meet those criteria are eligible even if they’ve moved on to fourth grade. Students who scored “Approaches grade level” don’t qualify. Parents can check their child’s STAAR scores at TexasAssessment.gov.
About 27% of third graders across the state didn’t meet grade level on this year’s reading test, according to TEA records. That’s a little more than 103,000 students across Texas.
Education researchers and school leaders say third grade is a critical milestone for reading because students who are behind at that point are unlikely to catch up later on and are at greater risk of dropping out of high school. During a State Board of Education meeting in June, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath repeated a truism that’s often cited by education leaders: third grade is the point where students should stop learning to read and begin reading to learn.
“Getting to third grade proficiency in reading is particularly important to unlock all the rest of education,” he said.
My third grader is behind in reading. How can I use the grant money?
Parents will be able to use the money to pay for private literacy tutoring to help get their children up to grade level. TEA officials plan to launch a marketplace of tutoring providers later this year. During the meeting, Morath said parents will be able to use the grants to pay for tutoring through programs such as Kumon or Sylvan Learning, or use it to hire individual teachers who are listed in the marketplace to work with their child individually. Parents can also use it to hire instructors with specialized certifications, such as Licensed Dyslexia Therapists or Certified Academic Language Therapists.
I’ve heard about the Texas Education Freedom Account program. Is this the same thing?
No. The Texas Education Freedom Account program gives students money to help pay for private school tuition or home schooling expenses. Students in those educational settings aren’t eligible for the PASS program.
The application window opens this fall. Parents may create a PASS portal account by going to pass.tea.texas.gov, and use that account to apply once the window opens.
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