SitStayRead builds confidence in young readers by using an engaging curriculum incorporating social-emotional learning, enriched by certified reading assistance dogs.

Since 2003, SitStayRead has provided year-round programming for low-income Chicago students in kindergarten through second grades.

Programs are delivered as classroom residencies in the Chicago Public Schools, charter schools and parochial schools in neighborhoods with 90% or higher low income communities, and where literacy rates lag at only 40-30% proficiency in third grade. Through our school partners, community organizations in these same neighborhoods, and a new partnership with the Chicago Public Library, SitStayRead also provides intergenerational family literacy events and builds home libraries with thousands of new, affirming, developmentally-appropriate books each year.

Each grade-level program has been created in partnership with institutions of education including University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Literacy, University of Chicago, DePaul University, and Northeastern Illinois University. In 2022, bilingual iterations of each level were developed and in 2024 a shift to center Science of Reading approaches was made.

SitStayRead kids gain and reenforce not only decoding, fluency and decoding skills, they attend class more regularly, they use behaviors and vocabulary related to self-regulation, one of the core social emotional learning threads though all curricula.

Help emerging readers in Chicago get a leg up on literacy!