INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Parents would be able to appeal a decision to hold their child back a year under legislation the Senate approved late Thursday afternoon.

The bill is the number one priority issue for Senate Republicans after an Indiana Department of Education report last fall found one-fifth of the state’s third graders can’t read at grade level. Bill author Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, said she modeled her legislation after a similar program that led to dramatic improvements in reading scores in Mississippi, which at one time had the lowest reading proficiency scores in the country. Rogers said she doesn’t want her bill thought of as a retention bill, but the option needs to be available for the most severe cases.

“To send these kids on through school without the ability to read sets them up to struggle for the rest of their education and, very often, for the rest of their life,” Rogers said. “Reading is the most fundamental thing schools need to teach our children.”

Under the bill, students would take the IREAD test in second grade instead of third grade, as they do currently. Rogers said the IREAD test would be reworked to account for younger readers. If a student failed the test, schools would have to offer summer reading courses or an individual reading program. The student would then retake the test in third grade. Rogers said if they failed a second time, they would get more intervention the following summer and tested again. Only if a student failed the IREAD test three times would they be held back for one year. An amendment added last week would allow parents to appeal the decision.

Senate Democrats said the bill’s many reading interventions are good investments, but they didn’t like the idea of forcing students to repeat a grade. Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, a former English teacher and school principal, said the data on Mississippi’s program doesn’t conclusively demonstrate whether holding students back benefited them. She said mandating retention takes away the discretion of parents, students, and teachers.

“We cannot punish children for the policy failures in this building and that’s what it feels like this bill is doing,” Hunley said.

A few Republicans broke with their party over the retention issue, notably Sen. Eric Bassler, R-Washington. Bassler said he was unable to read until he was in fifth grade. He said he had to attend special education classes in order to bring his reading skills up to par.

“Whether we like it or not, there’s a stigma to that, especially for a young child,” Bassler said. “That’s the thing that gives me pause, is, does it have a stigma on young people that we could address in some other way?”

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 36-13 and now goes to the House. Speaker Todd Huston has said he supports the bill’s concepts, though he has yet to review its specifics.