Alabama kicks off Summer Learning Challenge for students

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The state of Alabama has kicked off its 2020 Summer Learning Challenge.

“This is our eighth year with the summer learning challenge, and what we are trying to do as a state department of education is ensure that kids have access to quality books and other resources during the summer, so that they don’t have as much loss of their learning before school starts back,” said Alabama Reading Initiative Education Specialist Karen Rutledge-Bell.

The challenge began Monday and continues until July 31. Alabama parents will have access to many online resources available for kids in grades K-12 in order to “minimize the summer learning slide.”

[See the official Alabama Summer Learning Challenge]

The current situation with COVID-19 has left kids at home to learn for the better part of two months, something that could be challenging for kids and parents. Still, the Summer Learning Challenge is something Rutledge-Bell stresses is very important.

“We are hoping that the parents are still going to have a strong push for the summer learning opportunities, because we know that the kids have been doing a lot online learning already, but we also know the value of keeping them engaged through the summer," said Rutledge-Bell. "And we realized that this might be still an online platform for the most part, we’re hoping that the parents do take advantage of it, because we do want to make sure that our kids come back in the fall, ready for the challenges that they’re going to face them next grade.”

Parents can access the summer learning challenge for their kids on the Alabama State Department of Education’s website. Rutledge-Bell encourages parents to check back every week to see what has been updated on the website.