21st Century Programs Gaining Flexibility During School Day, But More Funding Sought

After a tense and uncertain summer, after-school providers funded through 21st Century Community Learning Centers are able to step back and take a breath.

These providers — a myriad of community organizations, YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs  and school districts across the nation — are seeing a huge need to support students and families during the pandemic. Families face financial hardship, schools are operating remotely, kids are cooped up at home and yet parents must work. But the federally funded, state-administered 21st Century programs — serving thousands of kids, many in high-poverty areas — have been limited to operating in the hours outside the school day.

On Sept. 3 the U.S. Department of Education announced its intent to give them flexibility to operate not just before and after school, but throughout the day. 

And this week a bill to the same effect is expected to pass the U.S. House of Representatives. 

It will help create flexible, affordable child care options for parents, said Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., in a statement when she introduced the bill on Sept. 4. 

“I’ve heard from hundreds of parents across my community concerned about how they will tackle this school year — how they find affordable child care, how they make sure their children don’t fall academically behind, and how they get back to work,” she said in her statement.

The bill is important in raising the visibility of the issue in Congress, said Erik Peterson, vice president of policy at the Afterschool Alliance, in an email.

By some estimates, 24 million workers with children ages 6 to 14 may not have child care options. And at the start of September, nearly three-fourths of the nation’s 100 largest school districts, serving more than 8 million students, were offering remote learning only, 

A recent Urban Institute report included the  21st Century program among eight policies it said were necessary to meet the needs of families with school-age children during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also included the Child Care and Development Fund, whose parameters were extended in August by the Office of Child Care to include virtual learning during the school day for school-age children 

Some states such as California and Connecticut had already relaxed restrictions on 21st Century programs. Changes in California gave these after-school programs the ability to work with school districts in new ways that would include setting up learning hubs for kids, Jeff Davis, executive director of the California Afterschool Network, told The 74. 

For many concerned about the needs of children and youth, the next step is to get additional funding for 21st Century programs into a COVID-19 relief bill. The Afterschool Alliance, the Bipartisan Policy Center, Child Care Aware, YMCA of the USA, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and other organizations have joined to call for $6.2 billion to fund child care for 4.5 million school-age children.