📚 Join Us for Literacy Day at the Capitol!  🗓 Tuesday, April 21  📍 Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda

Minnesota Literacy Day at the Capitol 2026: Why We Show Up Every Year

By Lyn Haselmann  ·  April 14, 2026  ·  5 min read

We are gathering once again to lift up student voices, celebrate literacy, and advocate for the support all Minnesota learners deserve. On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, The 20 Percent Club will be at the Minnesota State Capitol for Minnesota Literacy Day, and we want you there too.

Every April, families, educators, students, and advocates descend on the Capitol Rotunda in St. Paul for one of the most powerful days in Minnesota literacy advocacy. This year’s event, organized by Decoding Dyslexia Minnesota, kicks off at 9:45 a.m. and continues a decade-long tradition of making student voices impossible to ignore.

At The 20% Club, we have been part of this movement from the beginning, because the children we teach every day deserve more than we are currently giving them as a state. Here is why this day matters, what is on the agenda, and how you can be part of it.

What is Minnesota Literacy Day at the Capitol?

Minnesota Literacy Day is an annual advocacy event co-hosted by Decoding Dyslexia Minnesota and Great MN Schools. It brings together parents, students, teachers, community leaders, and legislators to celebrate progress on literacy and to keep the pressure on for what still needs to be done.

In 2023, this community helped push The READ Act across the finish line a historic $90 million investment in science-of-reading aligned instruction, professional development, and literacy coaching for every Minnesota school district. That bill did not pass on its own. It passed because hundreds of people showed up, year after year, until lawmakers understood the urgency.

Why it matters: Only about half of Minnesota’s public school students currently read at or above grade level. For students with dyslexia (roughly 1 in 5) the gap is even wider. Showing up at the Capitol is one of the most direct things any of us can do to change that.

What we are advocating for in 2026

The READ Act was a landmark win, but the work is not finished. This year, Decoding Dyslexia Minnesota is rallying support for SF1842 and HF60 — bills that would require teachers to receive two hours of professional development on dyslexia as part of their licensure requirements.

Two hours. That is all we are asking. And yet most Minnesota teachers graduate without ever learning what dyslexia is, how to identify it, or how structured literacy can help. Our students cannot wait for that to change on its own.

Why The 20% Club shows up

Our name comes from a hard statistic: approximately 20 percent of all students have dyslexia or a related reading difference. These are not students who are not trying. They are students whose schools were not trained to teach them.

Every child we work with at our White Bear Lake tutoring center is proof of what is possible when students get the right instruction Orton-Gillingham based, systematic, explicit, and delivered by someone who understands how their brain works. Dyslexia advocacy and dyslexia tutoring go hand in hand. We cannot do one without the other.

How to join us on April 21

• Attend in person — Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul. Gathering begins at 9:45 a.m. Bring your student if you can. Student voices are the most powerful thing in that rotunda.
• Contact your legislators — Visit decodingdyslexiamn.org for a script and your representatives’ contact info. A two-minute call or email makes a real difference.
• Share this post — Every parent who sees this and shows up is one more voice for Minnesota’s struggling readers.

Not sure if you should come? Think about the child in your life who is working twice as hard as everyone else just to keep up. Think about what it would mean for them to know that adults — their parents, their tutors, their community — went to the Capitol and said their name. That is why we go.

We hope to see you there. Until all can read — Lyn Haselmann, The 20 Percent Club

About Decoding Dyslexia Minnesota

Decoding Dyslexia Minnesota is a grassroots nonprofit that educates, advocates, and empowers families and educators across Minnesota. They have been a leading force behind every major dyslexia policy win in the state, including the universal definition of dyslexia in state statute and the 2023 READ Act. Learn more at decodingdyslexiamn.org.