Student Well-Being

COVID-19 Has Left Thousands of After-School Programs in Jeopardy

By Corey Mitchell — July 27, 2020 3 min read
Teacher Danielle Elliot wears a face mask this spring while speaking to students in an arts-and-crafts class in the in-person, child-care program for the children of essential workers at the Chase Avenue School in El Cajon, Calif.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Thousands of after-school programs closed their doors months ago—and a majority now fear they may never reopen.

Nearly 9 in 10 programs have long-term funding concerns because of school closures caused by COVID-19—and 6 in 10 are concerned that they may have to permanently shut their doors, a survey commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, reveals.

Despite the bleak outlook, the survey of 914 after-school providers may not capture the full extent of the trouble programs face. Survey respondents were contacted in May and June, before a wave of school districts, including nine of the nation’s 15 largest, announced this month that they plan to begin the fall semester online.

“There’s great uncertainty about economics,” Jodi Grant, the executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, said in an online meeting announcing the survey results. “Programs are losing resources and funding and really struggling to survive. We’re really concerned with what is happening in the field.”

The survey, the first in a series from the Afterschool Alliance, aims to gauge the health of an industry that served an estimated 10 million children before the pandemic struck. Now, heading into the fall, providers are bracing to serve only a fraction of that number.

Overall, the survey found that more than half of providers are unsure if the “worst is over or yet to come.” Among the programs surveyed, more than 75 percent have laid off or furloughed staff members or cut their hours. The programs that participated in the survey represent more than 6,000 after-school sites across 47 states and the District of Columbia.

“It is really concerning for us,” said Ayana Melvan, senior project manager for education initiatives at the United Way of Rhode Island, who leads the Rhode Island Afterschool Network. “Unfortunately, we heard that programs had to lay off staff, especially as they went virtual in the springtime.”

Switching Gears Quickly

As part of their efforts to remain connected with families, about 70 percent of programs were serving students in some capacity during the shutdown.

While some programs will remain sidelined during virtual learning, others may be forced to adapt.

Programs that do reopen for in-person services this fall likely will need more money to pay for cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment for staff and more space to maintain social distancing requirements—potential cost overruns that no program could have anticipated even six months ago.

In school systems that settle on hybrid learning models—a combination of in-person and virtual learning—for the fall, programs may have to hire more staff to serve extra students during a redesigned school day, one that calls for out-of-school programs to open during hours usually reserved for the traditional school bell schedule.

For weeks, Miguel Garcia, the director of Fort Worth After School, planned for an in-person, mid-August start for the district-led program that serves 7,000 students per day across 76 sites. Those plans were abandoned last week when Tarrant County, Texas, health authorities announced that all districts in the county, including Fort Worth, would only offer online classes for the first six weeks of the school year because of a surge in coronavirus cases.

Now, he’s trying to develop a program where staff are live online for seven hours a day to meet with students.

“We’ve had to switch gears pretty quickly,” Garcia said. “My gut feeling that it’s going to be all of fall so I’m going to prepare my team as though we’re going to go all fall with virtual programming.”

Programs Hit the Hardest

Federally and state-funded programs, and those that rely on philanthropic funding, are more likely to have pivoted to offer virtual services, such as academic support or online meetups, or are doing what they can to deliver meals and other aid to families struggling with food insecurity and unemployment.

Programs that rely almost entirely on parent fees have been hit especially hard during the pandemic. When compared to all after-school offerings, the fee-based programs are almost twice as likely to have remained completely closed since spring and are less than three times as likely to have offered virtual programming.

At the time of the survey, about 1 in 5 programs reported that they were serving the children of essential workers, a service that would likely continue even if school buildings do not reopen soon.

“After-school programs have been a lifeline for our kids, for our families and our communities during these desperate times,” Grant said.

Coverage of afterschool learning opportunities is supported in part by a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, at www.mott.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being A State Chief's Order to Schools: Provide Free Meals for All—With No New Funding
Oklahoma's state superintendent told districts to fully cover student meal costs. Districts say the mandate is costly and unenforceable.
6 min read
Cafeteria workers serve student lunches at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood, Calif. on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
Cafeteria workers serve student lunches at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood, Calif. on April 3, 2024. Demand for school lunches has increased after California guaranteed free meals to all students regardless of their family's income. Now, in Oklahoma, state Superintendent Ryan Walters is mandating that districts provide free meals to all students, although no state law requiring them has passed and the state hasn't set aside additional money.
Richard Vogel/AP
Student Well-Being The Online Behaviors Most Harmful to Kids’ Mental Health, According to a New Survey
A new survey asked 11- to 13-year-olds how they felt when they engaged in certain behaviors online.
5 min read
Photo of teen girl using cellphone.
Georgijevic / E+
Student Well-Being The U.S. Is Having Its Worst Year for Measles in More Than 3 Decades
Only 93% of U.S. kindergarteners had the MMR vaccination in the 2023-24 year—below the level that prevents outbreaks.
2 min read
A sign is seen outside of Seminole Hospital District offering measles testing, Feb. 21, 2025, in Seminole, Texas.
A sign is seen outside a Texas hospital offering measles testing. Only 82% of kindergarteners in Gaines County, Texas were up to date on MMR vaccines.
Julio Cortez/AP
Student Well-Being Can Tech Teach Kindness? 5 Tools That Build Social Skills
Technology is often blamed for causing bad behavior among students. But it can also promote positive social skills if used right.
5 min read
Vector illustration of a young girl connecting computer technology with the heart and emotions.
iStock/Getty