In the three years since Sante Fe’s Boys and Girls Clubs converted retail space in a local mall into the Del Norte Teen Center, project directors have counted over 4,000 teenagers filing inside to hang out with friends, play Xbox or PlayStation, get free haircuts or snag a pair of socks and deodorant.
“Often the teens just want to come in and just chill,” said Sarah Gettler, the clubs’ CEO. “Everything’s free for them, including food.”
Opened or broadened during the pandemic with a portion of $122 billion of American Rescue Plan funds to buffer schoolkids nationwide from COVID-19’s upheaval, after-school and summer programs such as that teen center in New Mexico offer a variety of academic, extracurricular, emotional and mental support services for youth. To date, states across the country have spent $2.8 billion of that funding on such programming, according to Afterschool Alliance estimates.
[Related: Nearly 90% of public schools now offer afterschool programs]
But with that special funding stream set to run dry in September, many of those programs are facing downsizing or closure. Thus far, 20 states have earmarked millions to keep some programs afloat, according to the Afterschool Alliance.
A roughly $107 million increase in 2023 of state-level investments in summer and after-school programs marks a reversal. Historically, many states didn’t dedicate state dollars for after-school efforts, which mainly were financed with federal and philanthropic dollars, said Chris Neitzey, the Afterschool Alliance’s director of state policy. It’s good, he said, that state leaders may be recognizing the importance of after-school and summer programming.
“There’s going to be a loss of programs in the coming months,” Neitzey added, regarding the disappearing federal funds. “And it’s definitely going to impact the families that need it the most.”
“The states,” he cautioned, nevertheless, “don’t have enough, frankly, to sustain all these investments with their state dollars.”
A geographically and politically diverse range of states, plus the District of Columbia, have already boosted funding for after-school programs or proposed doing so. The list includes Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont. Among those states, California, for example, stands out, dedicating $1.75 billion in state funding in 2021 to establish a universal after school, a pot of money that is expected to reach $5 billion over the next few years.
[Related: How states are using ESSER funds to strengthen high-quality out-of-school time learning]
But, as things now stand, the Santa Fe teen center’s $60,000 annual budget will grind down to zero dollars in 2025. Gettler said her organization will seek private donations and apply for government grants to replace it.
New Mexico is one of the states that created new funding. Its fiscal year 2024 budget allocates $10 million to 240 after-school and summer programs. While Gettler is excited about the state money, she is unsure if it will trickle down to her organization. Ideally, Gettler added, the federal government would extend the pandemic funding. But there is no sign of that.
“You never know how things will turn depending on who’s in charge of the government, but there will always be a need for after-school [programs],” Gettler said.
Pandemic funds paid for an after-school program’s permanent home
When Tyrone Burrell discovered that Michigan offered $50 million in grants for after-school programming for the 2023-24 school year, he tried to ensure that his 30-year-old faith-based nonprofit, Saving Our Neighborhoods and Streets, would meet the requirements.
“We jumped through every hoop, crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ’i’,” said Burrell, executive director of the organization, which recently used American Rescue Plan funds to acquire a building to house its academic and vocational programming.
[Related: Post-COVID summer programs didn’t boost kids academically, but may have helped anyway]
Separately, the Michigan Department of Education awarded Saving Our Neighborhoods $210,000 that will go toward the salaries of workers who, Monday through Friday, provide roughly 500, mainly low-income elementary and middle school students with tutoring and physical, emotional and spiritual support.
“The significance of this grant is that it lets us retain our staff,” Burrell said, likening the years-long effort to secure a building and payroll to “pushing a rock up a hill.”
He’s grateful, he said, that his organization’s persistence is paying off: “The kids are really going to benefit.”
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Brian Rinker is a Pennsylvania-based journalist who covers public health, child welfare, digital health, startups and venture capital.
