Thanks to a grant awarded to the Abington School District by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), grades K-5 students across the District’s seven elementary schools now have new items available for check-out at their school libraries, including 232 new titles and 21 brand-new Literacy Backpacks compiled by the Teaching and Learning Department.
Abington School District was among just 13 recipients across Pennsylvania – and one of only two school districts – to have been awarded a $5,000 Excellent and Equitable Youth Services Local Library Grant from PDE’s Office of Commonwealth Libraries (OCL) last year to help libraries serve their youngest learners through the purchase of fiction and non-fiction books for children and youth.
The grants, which were awarded in September 2024, are federally funded through the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by PDE, and aim to help libraries build inclusive collections for children.
In ASD, the grant supports a districtwide effort to enhance inclusivity, accessibility, and cultural responsiveness in elementary library collections. Through a collaborative process involving librarians, reading specialists, families, and cultural organizations, the Teaching and Learning Department identified gaps and selected hundreds of new titles targeted for grades K-5 that reflect the diverse identities, languages, and experiences of the District’s 8,000 students.
Through this purposeful curation, the new titles and resources – organized by genre, cultural representation, and reading level – make it easier to align materials with student needs and instructional goals. The strategic approach ensured that equity and accessibility were embedded into both the selection and implementation of the books, providing a framework for future collection development.
Additionally, to support early literacy among kindergarteners through second-grade students, the Teaching and Learning Department used the grant to purchase and compile structured literacy backpacks organized into seven focus areas, including decodable texts, financial literacy, social-emotional learning, and nonfiction, which can be checked out of school libraries and brought to students’ homes. The contents of each backpack also vary by reading level and skill focus, ensuring that resources align with a broad range of student needs and interests.
There are 21 backpacks total – three for each of the District’s seven elementary schools – with 122 practice readers across the span, designed to strengthen foundational skills and promote home reading. The backpacks also include a community journal for reflection and engagement.
Beyond having them available for take-home purposes, schools will also utilize the backpacks during their family literacy nights and other school events, helping to foster equitable access, multilingual literacy, and a strong sense of community belonging.
“We appreciate that Abington School District was selected by the Commonwealth to receive this grant, which is helping us provide culturally rich books in our libraries, in addition to reading materials that appeal to a wide variety of audience interests and offer a fresh approach to family engagement,” Ms. Janine Sack, Abington School District’s Supervisor of Literacy, said. “As with all of our literacy initiatives, the goal is not to simply improve reading scores, but to also help our students foster a love of reading that will carry them into their later grade levels.”
The new titles and literacy backpacks are now available for checkout in all seven elementary school libraries. Visit the Libraries page to learn more about literacy in ASD, and to check out one of the new titles funded by the PDE grant.