Enroll a Reading Buddy

How to enroll a Reading Buddy

To be eligible for the Reading Buddies program, a child must be speaking English relatively fluently and must be between the ages of 6 and 14 and be enrolled in first grade or higher.

Reading Buddies is a very popular program and therefore always has a waiting list.  Parents whose children wait one, two or even three semesters to get into the program sometimes find this to be a very frustrating situation, particularly because our procedures for filling openings can be confusing to the casual observer; this is due to the high number of factors that are taken into account when making the matches.

Reading Buddies is a reading program, not a language program.  Our big buddies are not trained to teach English, so children who are not particularly fluent in English are encouraged to seek help through Boulder Valley Schools’ ELL (English Language Learning) programs and are discouraged from trying to enroll in this program.

Enrollment is not simply a matter of filling slots.   We carefully match little buddies to their most appropriate big buddies.  Therefore, it is also not done on a first-come, first-served basis.  There are many criteria used to make these decisions.  We would be happy to discuss this with you.

To enroll, please either send an e-mail to Reading Buddies Coordinator Carrie Hausfather at carrie_hausfather@hotmail.com or call (720) 238-7784.

Our emphasis is on helping children who struggle with reading.  It would be helpful to receive a note from your child’s teacher stating that he or she is behind in reading but speaks English well.  This would help us to clarify that your child is in our target population.

In your phone call or e-mail, we would appreciate the following information:

  1. Your child's name and age
  2. Your name and phone number
  3. Your e-mail address
  4. The reason you think your child would benefit from being in Reading Buddies
  5. Please tell us whether your child could participate in the Monday group or Tuesday group (each of which meets from 4:30- 6 p.m. at the Main Library)