In October 2002, Sebastian River High School in Florida developed a literacy system that includes all faculty and staff members. The literacy system identifies roles, responsibilities, and actions for everyone, including daily literacy-related nonnegotiables for all teachers. Now, students who have a history of failure are posting gains of one year in both reading and mathematics as measured by the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT). These gains are particularly impressive because many of the students have disabilities or speak a first language other than English, or both. Multiple factors--including a caring school culture, a structure that facilitates personal relationships among students and staff members, and fail-safe literacy leadership--contributed to these results. This article discusses the fail-safe literacy system, focusing on issues of intervention, curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, materials and technology, parent engagement, and a teacher support system. (Contains 1 figure.) ["Fail-Safe Literacy" was written with Peggy Jones and Joe Mills.]