First-, second- and third-graders who can't read on grade level by the end of the school year might soon be held back a year if a bill that passed the Senate gains ultimate approval.

The Senate passed SB150 on Tuesday 18-8. The bill would bar schools from promoting students in those early grades who couldn't read at grade level. It would also require schools to notify parents before halfway through the school year if there was a possibility their kids might be held back.

Parents who disagreed with a school's decision to hold back a child could appeal to the principal, who could overrule teachers. The bill would also require schools to provide remediation to students who aren't reading at grade level, such as tutoring, before and after school help, or summer school.

Bill sponsor Sen. Karen Morgan, D-Salt Lake City, said about 25 percent of Utah children in those grades are "slipping through the cracks." In 2008, about 76 percent of Utah third-graders scored proficient or higher on the state's main language arts test.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, attempted to change the bill Tuesday to provide stipends for parents to select remediation for their students if they weren't reading on-grade level. But the Senate voted against the change after Morgan and others said the change would cost at least $8.1 million that the state simply does not have.

Stephenson called the bill "disingenuous" without the stipend.

"You can't have it both ways," he said. "We say we're providing additional resources for the children to focus on them, to help them get up to speed, but then we say, 'No, we can't fund this, we can't pass this amendment because this would give parents the choice of if they want it done at the local school or somewhere else.'"

Morgan said schools already have means to address poor readers. Sen. Patricia Jones, D-Salt Lake City, said the bill would shine a light on the problem and the need for parents to get more involved.

"It prevents schools from passing children from grade to grade without giving them that attention and help they need," Morgan said. "It will give help to tens of thousands of children."

The bill now moves to the House.