Four Oceanside schools will be able to start new intervention programs this year for students struggling to read, thanks to a $2 million federal grant.

The U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity announced earlier this month that it would give Oceanside Unified School District $2 million over the next three years to fund reading programs at three elementary schools and a middle school with a high percentage of students from military families.

Students at those schools who are at least two years behind in reading skills will qualify for the programs.

It's important to have special help for students from military families because they often face instability in their home and school lives, said Jeanne Iman, director of curriculum and instruction for the district.

"We felt that if we could at least have some kind of a stable academic program for them, that would assist those kids," she said.

The elementary schools involved are North Terrace, Stuart Mesa and Santa Margarita. Jefferson Middle is the fourth school.

The reading programs the grant will pay for are "Voyager Passport" for kindergarten through third grade and "Read 180" for grades four through eight.

The interventions will be part of the students' normal school day and probably will be taught in relatively small classes, Iman said.

Those schools will be the first in the district to have these programs, though other campuses have similar interventions, she said.

District officials applied for the grant in May with the Department of Defense Education Activity, which serves children of military families throughout the world.

The money will allow the district to hire an additional part-time teacher at each of the four campuses.

Depending on how well the intervention programs work, district officials may consider expanding them in the future, Iman said.

Call staff writer Stacy Brandt at 760-901-4009.