A pair of webinars last week stressed the vital role that key partnerships can play in ensuring more children master reading by the time they finish third grade.

A webinar we produced with Attendance Works on Tuesday, All Together Now! Developing Systemic Responses to Chronic Absence, demonstrated how school districts are working with community nonprofits and government agencies to help reduce chronic absence rates. Leaders from Los Angeles, Oakland, CA, and Buffalo, NY spoke about how their approaches have led to better attendance and, in California, cost savings.

The next day, we teamed up with the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation for a webinar that brought together Network Communities with learning disabilities advocates to discuss the newly released report, “Don’t ‘DYS’ Our Kids: Dyslexia and the Quest for Grade-Level Reading Proficiency.” The report details the history and progress in understanding and meeting the needs of children with dyslexia, as well as the challenges that must be overcome to ensure that all students can read proficiently by the end of third grade.

The webinar recapped the report’s recommended actions for helping children with learning disabilities, and highlighted successful efforts in Vero Beach, Fla. as well as the work of  Literate Nation, which is pushing legislative solutions.