Gov. Spencer J. Cox and first lady Abby Cox last week helped launch Utah Reads, a statewide community campaign to help parents and caregivers build daily reading habits with their children, in response to state data showing that only 50.3% of Utah third graders are reading on grade level.
Behind the campaign, which kicked off Friday at the Sprague Branch Library in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House neighborhood, is a simple case for the early years: third grade is when children stop learning to read and start reading to learn, and those who are slow to reach that milestone are four times more likely not to finish high school, according to a January 2026 Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute report based on state assessment data.
The same research underscores how much of that foundation is built at home — children who are read to regularly in their earliest years hear an estimated 1.4 million more words by kindergarten than children who are rarely read to, according to a news release from Utah Reads.
“Nothing shapes a child’s future quite like learning to read, and no one has more power to make that happen than the people at home with them,” Gov. Cox. “The best literacy program in this state is free: a parent, a child and ten minutes with a book. Utah Reads is how we make that the norm in every Utah home.”…