Literacy Guide

Founded in 1999, Child Care Aware of Missouri is dedicated to impacting the first two-thousand days of a child’s life by supporting those who care for them, ensuring every child has a strong foundation for lifelong success. Driven by their values they create lasting change through advocacy, education, and community partnerships to provide equitable, high-quality early childhood experiences for all Missouri children.

The Children's Literacy Project exists to make generational impact by giving every child the priceless gift of reading.

A Red Circle’s Education Advocacy Coalition meets once a quarter in an effort to improve educational outcomes for North County’s students. The school districts on which we focus are Normandy, Jennings, Ferguson-Florissant, Hazelwood, and Riverview Gardens. The meetings occur at A Red Circle, 6439 Plymouth Ave., Suite #W130, St. Louis, MO 63133 and include education professionals from all walks of life.

Home visiting is a free service for parents who are pregnant, have a young baby, or child not older than 5 years old. Home visiting agencies that are part of this referral system serve families in St. Louis County and City, and parts of Eastern Missouri.

They request that you complete an information form to have someone contact you about home visiting. Your answers will help them find an agency that is the best fit.

This referral system includes Bethany Christian Services of Missouri, Bringing Families Together, Family Forward, Good Shepherd, Jefferson County Community Partnership, Lutheran Family and Children's Services HFA and NPP, Nurse Family Partnership, Nurses for Newborns, Parents as Teachers (National Center, Jefferson R-6/7 School District, Lindbergh School District, Valley Park School District), MBCH Children and Family Ministries, Raising St. Louis, St. Louis County Nursing Program, Youth in Need and YWCA St. Louis.

The LUME Institute turns the science behind early childhood brain development into easy ways for parents to connect with their young children. Vroom's free, science-based tips and tools help parents and caregivers give children a great start in life.

Missouri’s agencies are working together to prepare every child for success in school and in life. Their vision is to ensure children are safe, healthy and successful learners, reaching their full potential.
Early Connections is a central place for families and professionals to access resources and information about what young children need from the Early Care & Education (ECE) system. They help families provide safe environments for their children, engage families in their children’s health and development and bring services for children and families together across the state. Early Connections is here to help you:

Find child care options.

Find family supports.

Learn about child development.

Access training.

Learn how to get involved in the Early Care & Education (ECE) System

Missouri adopted a new early literacy policy in 2022. "To achieve a comprehensive approach, the Show-Me State should consider early identification of struggling readers through universal screening three times per year. The state should also consider adopting policy supporting and sustaining literacy coach placement in schools, identifying a teacher licensure assessment aligned to the science of reading and creating a promotion/retention policy with good cause exemptions and multiple options for promotion."

DESE's Literacy Initiatives & Efforts - DESE is excited to support evidence-based literacy instruction focused on the Science of Reading. The Missouri Read, Lead, Exceed initiative is the state's comprehensive plan to dedicate $25 million in state funding and just over $35 million in federal relief funding to support student literacy.

Missouri Humanities’ programs remember the past by exploring Missouri’s Heritage, sharing Veterans' stories, and preserving Native American and Civil War history. Additionally, they offer digital programming that includes a streaming service, videos, and podcasts, and they foster young readers through their children’s Read From the Start literacy program.

From the University of Missouri St. Louis: "Transforming Literacy Education for Today and Tomorrow - The goal of the Missouri Language and Literacies Center (MLLC) is to transform education to meet the complex language and literacies needs of the 21st century." The MLLC gathers University of Missouri scholars from various disciplines and across UM system campuses with invested stakeholders from Missouri Public Schools to bring current, research-based information regarding language and literacy into preK-12 classrooms.

Missouri Open Educational Resources Commons (OER) was developed by MOREnet, in cooperation with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for Missouri educators at all levels.The content on these pages offers a wide selection of resources

Missouri Reading Initiative is "dedicated to working with public and private schools to ensure every student will read and write proficiently."

Guided by their commitment to serve the community and their strong foundation in education, Nine PBS connects partners, childcare providers, and families with trusted PBS KIDS resources, opportunities, and information to advance outcomes in our youngest, and most vulnerable, learners. This online learning toolkit streamlines Nine PBS’s early learning resources into one easy-to-use place for educators, parents, and caregivers. The goal is to decrease the digital divide and increase literacy, school readiness, and the quality of education.
You will find links to schedules, trusted educational content, activities, learning goals, and targeted resources for teachers and for parents.

A Red Circle hosts monthly Parent Cafés, which are designed to be physically and emotionally safe spaces where parents and caregivers are encouraged to share their challenges, strategies and successes on specific topics. Through participation in cafés, parents and caregivers gain connections to community resources and learn more about the protective factors that help to strengthen their families.

Reading Rockets is a national public media literacy initiative providing information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help.

Early literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they can actually read or write. The period between birth and five years old is the time to lay the foundation for future success in school. St. Louis County Library is committed to promoting early literacy within the community.

Turn the Page STL, St. Louis’ Chapter of the National Campaign for Grade Level Reading, is a city-county wide literacy initiative dedicated to increasing the number of children that are reading proficiently by the end of third grade. They measure the progress of their work based on their Collective Impact Strategic Plan, which outlines 5 focus areas to align and provide resources, including kindergarten readiness, summer learning, teacher preparedness, family engagement, and community awareness.

Parent and family engagement is foundational to improving children’s well-being and one of the core focus areas of Vision for Children at Risk (VCR). VCR engages, empowers, and provides education to parents and caregivers so they are equipped to be the best parents they can be. They believe in and support parents’ power to create positive, lasting change within their own families and throughout the region.

At the Y, they believe reading is an important part of growth and development. They want to ensure that youth have access to reading resources both in and out of school.