Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

myON Digital Library Access to Support Statewide Literacy Campaign

As the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, one of my biggest and boldest goals has been to ensure that every California student learns to read by third grade by the year 2026. In order for us to achieve this, my administration has launched a robust effort to get books in the hands of every student across the state, along with formally launching a task force with membership that includes notable leaders from the fields of pre-K–12 education, higher education, government, and the nonprofit sectors.

As part of my Literacy Initiative, the California Department of Education (CDE) has partnered with Renaissance to ensure that every California student can access thousands of engaging digital reading resources for free during winter break by visiting myON at https://www.myon.com/index.html.

Renaissance's Gift of Literacy means that a single statewide shared login to the myON digital library and news articles can be used by all California students who are not already reading on the platform with their own personalized accounts. With this shared account opportunity, every student can access unlimited reading opportunities at home, at school, and in their community.

From December 1, 2021, to January 31, 2022, any California student can benefit from 24-hour access to thousands of myON books in English and Spanish. Students can easily browse or search the digital library to find books to match their interests and grade level. There are also options for students to read books online or offline, even in low-bandwidth environments.

With that same shared login, students can also read myON daily news articles in English, Spanish, or French. These articles have been written by journalists for students and reviewed by a child psychologist for age-appropriate content.

I encourage school districts whose students are not already reading with myON to participate in this exciting partnership by following these simple steps to log in to myON and start reading:

• Go to https://www.myon.com/index.html and click on “myON login”
• Sign in using the single statewide shared account credentials
  • School Name: Gift of Literacy
  • Username: myon
  • Password: read
• Select a book or news article and start reading!

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 75,000 computing devices have been provided to students from the CDE Foundation Digital Divide Fund. It is our hope that students can use those devices as well as any personal devices they have to download books. From my standpoint, this is a strategy that is about many things, including helping children learn to read, but also putting them on a path that can create success for them. Our students can learn and overcome obstacles, but we have to give them the resources to do that.

I encourage every parent and student to access these free myON digital library resources to continue to read over the holidays. This is a great opportunity for our families to create a lifelong love of reading and encourage them to access the school or local library moving forward.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction