Providing a Safe, Learning Environment After School

" We must get serious about offering youth safe and smart after-school opportunities. For our children who need extra help with learning, let's provide it. Youth in after-school programs earn better grades, watch less TV and develop new skills and interests. For our children who need safe places to go -- let's keep school doors open after the school day ends so youth have a place in the community to go and benefit from computers, school libraries, music and supervised recreational space. With opportunities like these, young people in after-school programs are more like to stay out of trouble."

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley

Keeping schools open longer - before and after school and during the summer and weekends - can turn schools into community learning centers, providing students, parents, and the community with access to valuable educational and recreational resources in a safe and drug-free environment. According to a recent survey, parents are expressing a strong demand for after-school programs that provide more than just baby-sitting services. Parents suggested their children would benefit from computer classes, art and music courses, tutoring and community service projects. Recent research has also shown that quality after school programs can improve thinking and language performance of children and youth; and indicates that these type programs reduce crime, delinquency, and victimization of children and youth.

To help provide these safe, positive learning environments for the American school children who lack adult supervision during a typical week, Senator Jeffords created the 21st Century Community Learning Center Program, and President Clinton later suggested its expansion. This initiative supports school-community partnerships that expand or establish programs providing after-school care in public school buildings and using existing resources, such as computers, libraries, gymnasiums, and sports equipment.

Some facts:

• Approximately 28 million school-age children out of a total of 42.3 million have parents in the work force and require after school care. Experts estimate that at least 5 million school age children spend time as latch-key kids without adult supervision during a typical week.
• About 35% of 12 year olds are left by themselves regularly while their parents are at work.
• According to FBI statistics, most juvenile (ages 12-17) crime takes place between the hours of 3pm and 8pm.
• Only 1.7 million children from kindergarten through grade 8 were enrolled in 49,500 formal before- and-after school programs of any type in 1993.
• As recently as 1993-1994, only 30 percent of all public and elementary and combined schools offer after-school programs for learning and enrichment.
• More than 70 percent of parents want their children to attend an after school program -- while 79 percent indicated they would like a free program, almost as many, 74 percent, would pay for a program. There was little to no difference in the demographics of the parents who responded differently.
• There's a big gap between demand and supply for after-school programs. Out of 74% of parents who are willing to pay for an after-school program, only 31 percent of elementary school parents and 39 percent of middle school parents reported that their children actually attend an after-school program.

Some good examples:

• LA's BEST (Better Educated Students for Tomorrow), an after-school program in Los Angeles, California provides a comprehensive, supervised after-school program in 24 elementary schools that includes academic tutoring and instruction, a safe haven for enrichment and recreation, and an opportunity to develop self-discipline, self-confidence, and interpersonal skills. Through interviews with children, researchers found that the program participants felt significantly safer during after-school hours (even up to one year after they were no longer in the program), reported liking school better, and expected to complete more grades in school than those who did not participate. Schools running an LA's BEST program have shown a 40-60 percent reduction in reports of school-based crime. The staff includes teachers, parents and volunteers who facilitate homework assistance, computer and cooking clubs, organized trips, sports and the creative arts.
  CONTACT: Carla Sanger, (213) 847-3681

• Virtual Y, in New York City, is an extended school service designed to reach 10,000 public school children in 200 school buildings across the city. Each day, from 3pm - 6pm, 50 second, third and fourth graders at each site participate in the Y's traditional curriculum, the spirit-mind-body triangle, designed to build strong values, enhance education, improve academic performance, and promote healthy lifestyles -- with reading as the "golden thread" woven throughout to meet President Clinton's challenge that all children be able to read well by the end of third grade. Virtual Y maximizes resources by using a mixture of full- and part-time professionals and volunteers, including college work-study students, AmeriCorps volunteers, and high school students involved in service learning. Families, schools and the community work together to make the Virtual Y program happen.
  CONTACT: Paula Gavin, (212) 630-9694

• Save the Children Out-of-School Time Rural Initiative, Western Region provides training, technical assistance and ongoing evaluation to rural sites across the country, such as the El Rito Family Learning Center in New Mexico, and in Zuni, New Mexico. These Centers are working to provide children with constructive activities, safe places, and caring adults.. As a model literacy effort, the Zuni program highlights many efforts geared towards reading. The El Rito Center targets children for after school and summer programs, and offers them everything from computer lab instruction to fine arts. These youth programs attempt to instill pride by presenting alternatives to destructive behavior. Community members strongly support these programs because it improves the lives of children, and focuses on the need for healthy alternatives to the unemployment factors.
  CONTACT: Renee Paisano, (505) 268-5364

• The Milwaukee Project is a U.S. Department of Justice Weed and Seed site, in which law enforcement, community-based organizations, and residents work together to improve their neighborhood. The Milwaukee Public Schools System collaborates to provide Safe Havens at three neighborhood sites. Approximately 8,300 youth have participated in Safe Haven after school programs. Through a new U.S. Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Center after school grant, many more children will be served this year. The programs provide homework and tutoring assistance, recreational activities, games, choir, arts and crafts, and computer skills. The Safe Havens involve the police department in program planning, and also encourage students to participate in the Police Athletic League. The programs have played a role in the reduction in the crime rate in areas with a Safe Haven by providing youth with alternative activities during high-risk hours for delinquency. In the 15 months following inception of the program, the crime rate dropped by 20.7 percent in the areas with the neighborhood sites. The rate of violent offenses in these areas dropped by 46.7 percent during the same time period.
  CONTACT: Sue Kenealy (414) 935-7868