Federal and State guidelines require school districts to assess English language proficiency of ALL students who speak and/or understand a language other than English and to provide special provide English language instruction to all students who enter school not yet proficient in English

In Boulder Valley, all families complete a Home Language Survey as part of the registration process. Specially trained assessors from the department of Literacy and Language follow up with phone interviews and/or assessments to determine whether or not students qualify for an alternative language arts program.

In BVSD, alternative language arts instruction is provided through the ESL (English as a Second Language) program and, for some Spanish speakers, through the Bilingual Education program.

Boulder Valley offers three ESL programs for school age students:

• Elementary ESL for students in Kindergarten through Grade 5
• Middle School ESL for students in Grades 6 - 8
• High School ESL for students in Grades 9 - 12

Our mission is to promote the educational success of students of all ages from all linguistic and cultural backgrounds by:

• providing schools and families with services that support language, literacy and numeracy development
• affirming students’ cultural identity
• acting as advocates for students and their families

For a listing of staff and contact numbers, please visit Language and Literacy Department Staff Listings, select Language and Literacy from the drop down menu, and click submit.