The South Dakota Department of Education encourages families to read throughout the summer to prevent the “Summer Slide.” The summer slide is the loss of reading skills that happens to children over the summer months when they are not involved in some form of either formal or informal education activity.

Jasmine Rockwell is the Children and Youth Services Program Director with the South Dakota Department of Education. She says the degree in which each student suffers from the summer slide varies by socio-economic status

Rockwell says kids from lower economic backgrounds have less books at home. Their parents are also more likely to work two jobs, so time spent reading with their kids is minimal.

Rockwell says regardless of economic status there are fun ways to keep kids involved with reading during the summer

Rockwell encourages people who are in these situations to work with local schools to create some type of “long checkout” for a set of books for the summer, or to have school library hours. Rockwell says the Department of Education also encourages communities to come together to provide these resources.