Reach out to Congress in support of afterschool

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Thank you for your past support of local afterschool and summer learning programs that rely on federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) funding to provide quality programs to more than 1.7 million young people.

While the situation remains fluid, we thank Congress for including emergency paid leave and school meal flexibility in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and ask that Congress consider afterschool and summer learning specifically in the next COVID-19 emergency legislation package, including possibly addressing the following:   
- Direct assistance to providers based on enrollment, not attendance, including but not limited to the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learn Center (21st CCLC) Program.  
- Payments to programs and workers in the case of COVID-19 related closures of school or community based afterschool programs, including back-up care  
- Payments to programs to continue to serve children when parents or caregivers experience an inability to make co-payments or pay tuition   
- Assistance to cover the cost of substitute educators at afterschool programs  
- Consider community based afterschool programs as a resource to provide meals to students when schools are closed, and provide flexibility and resources for that to occur.   
- Non-profit organizations including afterschool and youth-serving organizations should be included in tax and other relief targeted to small businesses.

Additionally, I call on you to again reject the Administration's proposed elimination of 21st CCLC and instead, as Congress begins work on the FY 2021 appropriations process, I urge you to fund 21st CCLC at the $1.35 billion level and reject any cuts to the program.

During the hours between when the last school bell rings and before parents come home from work, 1 in 5 kids are alone and unsupervised. According to an October 2019 report by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national organization of more than 5,000 law enforcement leaders, these hours are the peak time for juvenile crime.  However, these are also the hours that are filled with potential; when afterschool programs are helping kids get excited about learning, attend school more often, get better grades, and build foundational skills, like communication, teamwork, and problem solving.

Nationwide, 9 in 10 adults say afterschool programs are important to their community--and more than 19 million kids are waiting to get in.

Afterschool and summer learning programs help working families by keeping kids safe and productively engaged when school is not in session – the time when youth are most at risk of losing ground. A wide range of research has found that regular participation in high-quality summer and afterschool learning programs is linked to significant gains in academics, school attendance, and work habits, as well as reductions in behavior problems among disadvantaged students. 
These programs serve as a protective factor as well, helping prevent young people from taking part in risky behaviors like vaping. Without funding for summer and afterschool programs, students will lose out on essential learning opportunities that help them prepare for school, college, and careers.

I strongly urge you to increase funding to the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative by $100 million, providing $1.35 billion for local school and community afterschool and summer learning programs, and allowing an additional 100 thousand students to access local programs.  I ask that you reject the administration’s proposal and protect this important lifeline for students, families, and communities.

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