The Hidden Challenges:
How Texas Families Experience Reading in 2025
In 2025, BookSpring conducted its comprehensive Texas Reading Survey to understand family reading habits, attitudes toward literacy, and book access across the state. With 320 responses from parents and caregivers of children 12 and under across 73 Texas counties, this year’s findings reveal both encouraging trends and important opportunities for strengthening literacy support. Notably, 38% of responses were completed in Spanish, reflecting our commitment to reaching diverse communities across Texas. Here’s what we learned and how we can work together to support every family’s reading journey.
Key Findings on Reading Attitudes
Parents Recognize Reading’s Fundamental Importance
The 2025 survey revealed overwhelmingly positive attitudes toward reading:
Educational Value: 78% of parents rate reading as “very important” to their child’s educational success, with 96% rating it as important or very important overall. This represents strong recognition of reading’s foundational role in learning.
Reading as Connection: Beyond academics, parents see reading as a relationship-builder:
- 63% strongly agree that reading together strengthens their connection with their child
- 62% strongly enjoy reading books together with their children
- 42% report that reading together has helped their child show more empathy
The Relationship Frame Matters: While previous surveys have emphasized academic outcomes, the 2025 data show parents are equally motivated by the social and emotional benefits of reading. This insight opens new opportunities for how we talk about literacy.
A Hidden Challenge: Reading Confidence
While attitudes are positive, 24% of parents find reading aloud difficult, a significant barrier.
- This represents roughly 1 in 4 families who may face adult literacy challenges, language barriers, or simply lack confidence in their reading technique
- These parents are highly motivated (they completed a literacy survey!) but need support
- This finding highlights an often-overlooked opportunity: building parent confidence alongside child literacy
Book Ownership: Progress and Persistent Gaps
Families in our 2025 survey report having books at home. What’s clear is that families recognize books as valuable resources for their children. We are seeing a positive trend towards greater book ownership compared to previous years. 52% in 2025 compared to 26% in 2024.
The Spanish-Language Book Gap
One of the most actionable findings from 2025 relates to language: 23.4% of households speak Spanish as their primary language, BUT only 16.5% of households have Spanish as their primary book language
What This Means:
- There’s a 7-percentage-point gap between Spanish-speaking households and Spanish book availability
- Families may be purchasing English books despite a Spanish language preference
- Children may be missing opportunities to develop literacy in their home language
Reading Frequency and Family Practice
How Often Families Read Together
Parents reported varied reading frequencies with their children:
- 24% read together at the highest frequency (most often)
- 38% read at the second-highest frequency
- 23% read at a moderate frequency
- 15% read less frequently
Important Context: While 62% of families read at the two highest frequency levels, 54% of parents report feeling guilty when they don’t read daily with their children. This suggests that messaging around “daily reading” may be creating unnecessary pressure. Families benefit from encouragement to read consistently in whatever rhythm works for them, whether that’s daily, several times a week, or on weekends.
Digital Reading
72% of families report that children read on digital devices such as smartphones or tablets. This aligns with the broader trend of technology integration in children’s literacy, though it’s lower than the 91% peak seen in 2023.
Personal Reading Habits: Parents as Models
Parents’ own reading habits vary by purpose:
- Reading for pleasure: Most frequent
- Reading for self-improvement: Second most common
- Reading for work: Moderate frequency
- Reading for school: Least frequent
Parents who read themselves are modeling literacy for their children, making family-wide reading culture an important focus.
The Power of Reading: What Parents Believe
Strongest Areas of Agreement
When asked about reading attitudes (on a scale where 1=Strongly Agree and 5=Strongly Disagree), parents showed remarkable consistency:
Top Beliefs (all with mean scores below 1.6):
- “Reading books is a good use of my child’s time” – 1.33
- “Reading books aloud to my child is important” – 1.39
- “Reading together strengthens the connection with my child” – 1.48
- “I enjoy reading books together with my child” – 1.50
- “My child learns new ideas when they read a book” – 1.57
The overall mean across all positive reading attitudes was 1.45, indicating strong, consistent agreement.
An Important Note on Difficulty
While attitudes are overwhelmingly positive, the survey also revealed that 32.8% of parents disagree that reading aloud is difficult for them, but that means over 20% agree it IS difficult. This group deserves targeted support.
Language and Literacy: The Bilingual Reality
Survey Language Distribution
The 2025 survey was offered in both English and Spanish:
- English responses: 200 (63%)
- Spanish responses: 122 (37%)
Language at Home vs. Language of Books
The 6-percentage-point gap between Spanish-speaking households and Spanish book collections represents a concrete, addressable need.
School and Community Engagement
Perceived Importance to Educational Success
When asked, “How important do you think reading is to your child’s educational success?”:
- 78% rated it as “very important” (highest level)
- 18% rated it as “important” (second level)
- 3% rated it as “somewhat important.”
- <1% rated it as “not important.”
This near-universal recognition (96% rating reading as important or very important) provides a strong foundation for school-family partnerships around literacy.
Actionable Steps Forward
Based on the 2025 survey insights, here are BookSpring’s key priorities moving forward:
- Build Parent Reading Confidence: 24% of parents find reading aloud difficult
- Close the Spanish-Language Book Gap: 23% of households speak Spanish primarily, but only 17% have Spanish books
- Reframe Reading Around Relationships: Parents are motivated by connection and empathy, not just academics
- Normalize Varied Reading Routines: 54% feel guilty not reading daily, but reading frequency varies widely
- Strengthen Geographic Reach: 73 counties represented, but concentration in major metros (May be an artifact of survey collection biases)
- Engage Parents as Leaders: Parents who completed this survey are already motivated
How You Can Help
BookSpring can’t do this work alone. Here’s how partners, donors, and community members can support Texas families:
Community Organizations:
- Host rotating Spanish-language book collections
- Offer space for parent reading practice sessions
- Connect families to BookSpring programs
- Share the message that all reading routines are valuable
Healthcare Providers:
- Distribute “Reading Tips” cards at well-child visits
- Screen for parent reading confidence, not just child development
- Connect families to literacy resources
- Recognize reading as a health intervention
Donors and Funders:
- Support Spanish-language book acquisition
- Fund parent confidence-building programs
- Invest in geographic equity (rural and border communities)
- Enable sustainable book distribution infrastructure
Families:
- Read in whatever rhythm works for you—consistency matters more than frequency
- Ask for help if reading aloud feels difficult—you’re not alone
- Request books in your home language
- Share what works with other families in your community
Looking Ahead
The 2025 Texas Reading Survey paints a picture of families who deeply value reading but face real barriers to implementation. The opportunity is not to convince parents that reading matters—they already know. Instead, we must:
Remove obstacles (parent confidence, book access, guilt and pressure)
Provide support (Spanish-language books, modeling, realistic expectations)
Reframe the conversation (connection over academics, various routines, family-specific approaches)
When families read together, they don’t just build literacy, they build connection, understanding, and possibility. We’re grateful to every family who participated in this survey, sharing their experiences and insights. Your voices directly shape BookSpring’s programs and priorities.
Questions about the survey? Contact info@bookspring.org