INDIANAPOLIS — At Mary Nicholson School 70 in Indianapolis, volunteers are helping elementary students with reading.
"Can you try this one?" said Cory Victor as he sat beside a student in the cafeteria of the school.
"Most places get snow in the winter," the student said.
"Good job," Victor replied.
It's part of the United Way of Central Indiana's ReadUP program.
The program pairs volunteers with elementary schools to provide a 30-minute reading session with a student each week.
"It's really fun. They build a mentoring relationship — the students and the volunteers — so it's not just them reading together. They're asking about their day. They're helping them through any challenges that they're going through, so that real intergenerational relationship is really important," said Kiera Hall, manager of the ReadUP Program.
According to the Indiana Department of Education, one in five children can't read by the end of third grade.
Under a state literacy bill that went into effect July 1, students who fail the IREAD test in second grade could get reading help. If they fail in third grade, they would be held back.
Exceptions include students with special needs or those who have English as a second language.
On Wednesday, Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner and Gov. Eric Holcomb applauded educators from 241 Indiana schools for scoring 95% or better on the most recent IREAD assessment.
"We knew we had to put all hands in to make sure that every child is reading in our state," Jenner said.
"You're the entrepreneurs that are manufacturing talent," Holcomb said.
Back at IPS School 70, Hall said she's hoping more volunteers take part in a program that began in 2007 at seven IPS schools.
"We're in Boone, Hamilton, Hendricks, Putnam and Hancock counties, in addition to Marion County," Hall said. "At the height of this program, we had 700 volunteers, and we've gone down to a little under 300."
These are reasons why supplemental reading programs like ReadUP is so important to make sure every child succeeds.
For more information on the ReadUP program, click here.