Why are after school programs important?

Introduction

After-school hours are a critical time for youth. That time can represent either an opportunity to learn and grow, through quality after-school programs, or a time of risk to youth's health and safety.

The after-school hours are the peak time for juvenile crime and risky behaviors such as alcohol and drug use. Most experts agree that after-school programs offer a healthy and positive alternative. These programs keep kids safe, improve academic achievement and help relieve the stresses on today's working families. They can serve as important youth violence prevention and intervention strategies.

Yet most youth do not have access to after-school programs. Every day, at least eight million children and youth are left alone and unsupervised once the school bell rings.1 While nine in 10 Americans think that all youth should have access to after-school programs, two-thirds say it is difficult to find programs locally. With more and more children growing up in homes with two working parents or a single working parent, today's families can benefit from the safe, structured learning opportunities that after-school programs provide.

Overview

After-school programs are defined as safe, structured activities that convene regularly in the hours after school and offer activities to help children learn new skills, and develop into responsible adults. Activities may cover topics such as technology, reading, math, science and the arts. Programs may also offer new experiences such as community service, internships or tutoring and mentoring opportunities.

Without structured, supervised activities in the after-school hours, youth are at greater risk of being victims of crime, or participating in anti-social behaviors. In fact, juveniles are at the highest risk of being a victim of violence between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.2 And the peak hour for juvenile crime is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., the first hour that most students are dismissed from school.

Other safety issues surface in the after-school hours as well. Students who spend no time in extracurricular activities, such as those offered in after-school programs, are 49 percent more likely to have used drugs and 37 percent more likely to become teen parents than are those students who spend one to four hours per week in extracurricular activities.

Beyond serving a significant role by simply offering youth a safe haven, after-school programs offer children and youth opportunities to learn new skills such as conflict resolution, prepare for a successful career, improve grades and develop relationships with caring adults. These skills can be critical in helping youth develop in positive ways and to avoid behavior problems and conflict.

The link between after-school program participation and violence prevention and increased achievement among youth is increasingly evident as new research emerges. After-School Programs: Keeping Children Safe and Smart, a joint report from the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice, shows that students in after-school programs exhibit fewer behavioral problems, better ability to handle conflicts and improved self-confidence.

In Los Angeles, a UCLA evaluation of an after-school initiative called LA's BEST found that students with higher levels of participation in LA's BEST program had better school attendance and higher scores on standardized tests of mathematics, reading and language arts. A study by RAND of fourth graders in Foundations, Inc. after-school programs reported that children in the programs outperformed their counterparts on academic achievement tests.

Despite the tendency to think of older children as able to take care of themselves, studies show that after-school programs benefit youth at all levels, from elementary to high school. In fact, middle and high school students may often benefit most from these programs. A recent survey of high school students, for example, revealed that students in after-school programs had greater expectations for the future and were more interested in school than their peers.

Many government agencies and nonprofit organizations have begun to promote after-school programs as a positive resource for youth in the past several years. However, while the concept seems to be taking off, the need for programs is far from being met. More than 28 million school-age children have parents who work outside the home, and that number is growing. Applications for after-school program funds from the federal government's 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative outpace the resources available by two to one. While the initiative has grown exponentially in the past four years (from $40 million in 1998 to $846 million in 2001), the U.S. Department of Education had to deny 1,000 high-quality proposals for after-school funding in the last grant cycle. This gap reflected a need in 2000 that was more than double the available resources.