As of last month, more than 2,400 claims were pending in the overseen by a judge in California. More than 10,000 individual cases and nearly 800 school district claims were pending across . And more than 40 have filed or joined lawsuits against the companies.

The lawsuits allege that the platforms were deliberately engineered to maximize addictive use among children and teenagers, and that the companies knowingly designed them to drive young people’s prolonged engagement, despite mounting evidence that they can be harmful.

Their recommendation algorithms amplify harmful material, the lawsuits allege. And weak age-verification systems have allowed underaged users broad access. The companies that run the platforms knew about these risks, they say, but failed to warn users and families about the mental health risks, often revealed by their own research. 

The companies have disputed these claims, maintaining that their platforms include safety tools. But one of them, Meta, which runs Facebook, acknowledged that the lawsuits could be costly, this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission warning investors that the lawsuits and mass arbitration demands could “significantly impact” its finances.

That could happen soon. In late March, two landmark verdicts came down within 24 hours of each other: On March 25, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube liable for designing that harmed a 20-year-old woman who started using them as a child. The jury awarded her $6 million. The companies that run Snapchat and TikTok were also named as defendants, but reached undisclosed settlements before trial.

A day earlier, a New Mexico jury for failing to protect kids from child exploitation and ordered it to pay $375 million for consumer-protection violations. “You add it all up and it could be hundreds of billions of dollars,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt recently.

As with the tobacco and opioid lawsuits, one major question is emerging: Where will the money go? Will the proceeds benefit children, or will they end up simply padding states’ and school districts’ budgetary bottom lines?

To answer this, ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ turned to Elizabeth Gaines, founder and CEO of the , a nonprofit focused on helping governments and communities figure out how to pay for programs and services that support children and youth. The organization doesn’t run the actual programs, but helps leaders and policymakers build sustainable funding systems to establish and keep these programs going, such as early childhood education, afterschool programs and mental health services.

It specializes in so-called “strategic public financing,” which pushes communities to examine how much they spend on children, how much they actually need and where they can find or generate more funding for, in Gaines’s words, “deeper investments” for kids. 

A lifelong child advocate, Gaines has worked in the field for 30 years, from think tanks to state-level advocacy. She founded the funding project eight years ago. “I looked around and realized that no one at the national level was really focusing on the public financing of child and youth development and programs and services writ large,” she said.

The project now tracks more than 300 federal, state and local funding streams that support children and youth from cradle to career.

Gaines began her career in her home state of Missouri, where she worked on ensuring one key goal: that proceeds from the 1998 benefited children. 

Spoiler alert: They didn’t. A budget shortfall prompted lawmakers to redirect millions from the settlement into the state’s general fund. Gaines now admits, “We did not get involved early enough in that process to really be able to shape the outcome of those dollars.”

Nearly 30 years later, with thousands of cases focused squarely on the harms of social media, she is working to build a coalition of groups that can persuade governors, lawmakers, educators and attorneys general to keep the focus on uplifting kids, not filling budget holes. The coming legal settlements, she said, are payback for that harm. “And [when] they pay back in, it needs to go back into the public good.”

ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ’s Greg Toppo recently sat down with Gaines for a wide-ranging conversation on her work and the “game-chaning” potential of the social media payouts.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

First let’s talk about the tobacco payouts. You were in Missouri at the time. As you look back on that now, what were the mistakes?

The tobacco settlement was the Wild West. I remember we had $20 million that the governor and the legislature had committed, and they were like, “Yes, we’re going to put that towards positive youth development — and it’s going to be huge!” Back then, that was big dollars for Missouri. And then there was a little budget crisis, and the governor withheld those dollars. It was like, “Oh, sorry.” But that was happening all over the country at that time. There are some states that did a good job of setting tobacco settlement dollars aside and having a real method to how they dispersed them, but for the most part, those dollars went into the general fund and never really tracked in any significant way. 

What about the opioid settlements?

They’ve gotten better, and I think we’ve been really guided by in the opioid settlement, which was like, “Here are the 10 things that these dollars are intended to be used for.” And so states have taken that, some of them more seriously than others, as the funds roll out. 

So let’s assign a number, a score of one through 10 to the tobacco settlements in terms of where the money went. 

Writ large, that’s so hard. I mean, anecdotally, because I haven’t done a full research study, my sense is probably three out of 10. States weren’t putting funds towards something that was prevention-oriented or reinvesting in the community. 

I want to make sure I understand what the Children’s Funding Project does. I know what your objective is. I wonder: Do you have any leverage, or is this all just advisory? Are you on the outside looking in, saying, “Hey, governors, you should do this”? Or do you have power to make these things happen?

We have no real hard power in this. What we are attempting to do is go around and get regulations in place. And what we really need is to then replace that with deep investments in young people. We’re narrowing in on the attorneys general who are going to be at the table, because they’re leads among the states in the suits, making sure that they understand that it’s not just a settlement to punish the companies and then wherever those dollars go, so be it. There’s a safety aspect that they’re working on: Protect young people, change the platforms, make sure we’re not having faulty products like we’ve had. 

But then there’s a youth justice component to this too.  And people just haven’t gotten there yet. So I think we’re just ahead, honestly, of where zeitgeist is on this, and when we do get it in front of people, they’re like, “Yes, that’s where the money needs to go.” We’ve got a former attorney general who’s advising us on how the A.G. world works because it’s new to our field.

So no, we are not involved in the suits directly, and that’s intentional. That’s somebody else’s job. Our job, as the people who care about funding for kids, is to focus on making sure that money goes to the right place.

So let’s talk about that. What are the things we should be buying with it?

Spokane, Washington, has this thing that they started out of their schools called . Basically what this buys is some joy and some curiosity and some investment in things for a group of young people that have kind of had a rough decade. It’s not been awesome to be a young person. And so this is to say, “You want to learn to play the trumpet? You want to learn to code? You want to learn to build trails out in the woods? Whatever it is that’s speaking to you as a young person, we want to put an infrastructure in place that actually allows you to go and explore that.” And so they’re doing it in Spokane, which is great. 

You talk about a “rough decade” for young people. It sounds like you want to offer them opportunities that maybe even their predecessors, their parents, didn’t have. 

I will just say this: There are special cases where young people have gotten to do it. I ran youth programs 30 years ago. The program that I ran became one of the very first . And there are people who I hired that work there to this day who are incredibly talented youth workers, who now for generations have been saving young people and really helping them find their calling. And to have young people in relationships with talented adults who know how to do that — and other talented young people, what we call “near peers,” who can provide that kind of guidance — is something we’ve never had.

21st Century Community Learning Centers have basically been since years ago. It’s kind of crazy to think that we’ve never invested more than a billion dollars in that as a country.

If you went to an attorney general, and they said, “Just lay it all out for me,” what are the possibilities? Obviously there is a constituency that will say, “Just give the schools more money.” Just make classes smaller, improve buildings, put in HVAC, and on and on and on. Pump money into the system. Do you find yourselves in opposition to that?

They should, just as a matter of course, pay for HVAC systems for our schools, and so using this special pot of money to do that is not going to have the intended impact that we want to have. And given the direct link between the harms related to youth mental health and what we know about investing in prevention and upstream opportunities,  this is a chance to really make a significant investment in those kinds of things. So the coalition that we’re building is really trying to bring together the people not only that are in the comprehensive afterschool funding community, but into sports and play, outdoor education, arts, civic engagement leadership, youth in service types of activities. There’s a bunch of stuff that’s always been underfunded. This is a chance to quadruple down on it.

Quadruple down? 

Well, I’ll just go ahead and admit it’s going to be more than that. 

You’re talking about the harms of social media, and obviously thinking of ways to to remedy that. Who are the people you would work with to make some of these things happen?  

Let me be clear: We are really trying to coalesce any organization. Largely they’re community based organizations. There’s the names that people know: the Boys and Girls Clubs and the Y’s, but there’s also really organically grown, community based organizations that, in many cases, are the most effective at reaching young people that are hard to reach in the places where they are. And those folks have always just done that work and found ways to do it, but have been deeply underfunded. And so if I was the boss of social media litigation, I would say investing in those homegrown, local organizations would be a really powerful thing to do. We’re trying to bring all of those folks to one table, and then there’s going to have to be state-by-state approaches. 

Could you envision a landscape where offering funding to public schools is in opposition to the Girl Scouts or the Campfire Girls or Boys and Girls Clubs?  

Certainly that could happen. But our intent is to make this like what they’ve done in Spokane. That’s superintendent-led. I think the schools are going to have to get that this is an opportunity to really do some things that they get pressured to focus on, when really they have a job to do already and they can’t seem to layer the social-emotional well-being of young people on top of what they’re trying to do. 

I was talking to somebody today about something totally unrelated, and they used the term “human flourishing.” That sounds kind of like what you’re talking about.

Yeah. I mean, listen: With the onset of AI and the way that the world is shifting, I think there’s going to be a huge need that becomes so clear for folks about just the value of being human and how we raise good humans. It’s going to become increasingly important.

You talked about attorneys general. Are there any who you feel are leading the way?

You probably saw [New Mexico Attorney General] , the New Mexico case, which is not actually part of the larger case, . [A jury in March found that Meta had failed to protect young users from child predators on Instagram and Facebook.] It was the first one at the state level out of the gate that has gotten an early verdict. And it was pretty powerful. He was only looking at one set of harms related to child exploitation. So just on that one harm alone, they said was owed. And then if you extrapolate that to all the other harms, it’s significant. Certainly Kentucky’s, A.G., Colorado’s, California’s. But it’s a truly bipartisan group of A.G.s that are leading on this. 

These strike me as not just life-changing numbers but just system-changing numbers. I mean this has a potential to really just change how we even consider what’s possible. 

That’s the point, and that’s, I think, why people get very excited about this as a solution, as a chance to really dream and to get young people excited and engaged. “Game-changing” is how we’ve been describing it to the field. And we’ve got to stop thinking about just like, “Let’s fight for those little afterschool dollars that we’ve had all this time.” No, this is about a bigger play.

Out-of-school programs, including afterschool and summer learning, are more in demand than ever. According to , the most comprehensive national study of afterschool and summer program participation, parents of nearly 30 million children want their kids to attend an afterschool program. Yet only 7 million students are enrolled. The reason is clear: of families say they cannot afford afterschool programs, and summer programs, which often offer full-day coverage, can be even further out of reach, particularly for .

While the crisis in care for young children is , much less attention is paid to what happens once they enter elementary school, even as costs for afterschool and summer programs . The result is deeply inequitable access. Families with high incomes spend on out-of-school activities than those with lower incomes ($6,588, compared with $734 annually). Unsurprisingly, children from higher-income households are much more likely to participate in enrichment opportunities and other activities outside the school day. 

This matters not only for families, but for schools and communities. High-quality out-of-school programs bolster for students, and make it easier for parents to by providing enriching child care. Summer programs, in particular, can play a critical role in preventing learning loss and expanding access to enrichment that many students would otherwise miss. When costs are out of reach, the kids who could benefit the most are the least likely to attend.

At the same time that family demand is growing, the critical funding that helps keep access affordable is increasingly fragile. Federal programs dedicated to afterschool and summer programs, such as 21st Century Community Learning Centers, face uncertainty. This creates unpredictability not only for families, but also for the nonprofit organizations that provide the bulk of affordable programming.

The good news is that this problem is addressable. Making out-of-school programs accessible will require coordinated action involving providers, public funding and philanthropy, but there are clear steps that can be taken now. 

First, nonprofit providers can rethink their revenue strategies to balance access and sustainability. Many nonprofit organizations are experimenting with charging for some aspects of their programs, preserving affordability for families while strengthening their own long-term financial health. For example, , an Overdeck Family Foundation grantee focused on science, technology, engineering and math, introduced modest registration and participation fees for a new high school program that invites students to design , while keeping its core middle school model free. At the same time, DiscoverE expanded corporate partnerships to cover student travel and participation costs for its in-person STEM competition. Since making these changes in 2023, the organization has increased total revenue by 26% and earned revenue by 21%, all while increasing participation to 84,000 students in 2025. The lesson isn’t that every nonprofit should raise fees, but that flexible revenue strategies can expand access rather than restrict it.

Second, providers should look toward emerging public funding streams. For example, 28 states and the District of Columbia now offer some form of support for afterschool and summer programs. Education savings accounts, currently available through , present another potential source. While afterschool and summer programs are among the eligible ESA expenses, these policies are evolving, and families’ use of them is expanding. Finally, a could generate additional resources. Under the law, eligible taxpayers can receive a credit for donations of up to $1,700 to intermediaries known as scholarship-granting organizations, which can, in turn, grant scholarships for educational expenses, including extended day programs. How these dollars ultimately support afterschool and summer programs remains to be seen, but it’s another possible revenue stream in a field where demand consistently outpaces families’ ability to pay.

Third, philanthropy subsidies play a critical role. When cost is the primary barrier, philanthropic dollars can subsidize program slots, fund scholarships or cover costs for materials and educator salaries that would otherwise be passed on to families. The benefits of out-of-school programs make them a natural fit for funders focused on education, youth development or workforce participation.

As another summer registration season approaches, all stakeholders — providers, intermediaries, policymakers and funders — have a role to play in increasing the affordability of out-of-school time programs. This will ensure that any family who wants a high-quality, enriching program for their child is able to find one, and that more students can access out-of-school experiences that bolster a wide range of academic and social skills.  

Families and schools play a crucial role in recognizing when a young person needs help and providing or connecting them with it, but they cannot possibly do it all. Fortunately, there is an untapped opportunity to expand support: the community-based organizations and out-of-school-time programs where young people already spend time, form trusting relationships, and feel a sense of safety and belonging.

Summer camps, youth mentoring, sports leagues, after-school clubs and countless other experiences — these are spaces where trusted relationships are built, often over years. Reaching young people through the organizations they already trust is crucial to broadening and strengthening the mental health safety net. With the right tools and training, they can become powerful front-line hubs for mental health support. But that requires real investment in partnerships, resources, and staff training.

Let’s be clear: This is not about turning after-school programs into clinics. It’s about embedding a layer of basic mental health support into places where young people already feel a sense of belonging. We can equip nonprofit staff to recognize, respond to and refer youth in need to professionals when necessary — ensuring the young people they serve are seen, supported and connected with the help they need. 

Today’s young people are more open than ever about mental health. Research from our organizations, (JED) and (APA), among others, shows that this generation is more self-aware and ready to advocate for emotional well-being than any before. And they are looking for support in familiar spaces where they already spend time: APA’s 2024 report found that more than 80% of young people recommend schools and community‑based organizations expand individual counseling services.

But openness alone isn’t enough. Support needs to meet them where they are.

Everyone who is part of a young person’s life is on the front lines of addressing young people’s urgent mental health needs. Rather than putting the burden on youth themselves to find support, we can build mental health expertise in the places they already are. 

The 150 organizations in APA’s Alliance Community, for example, collectively serve 31 million young people each year. Through these and so many other organizations, youth are already forming close bonds with the tutors, coaches and counselors they interact with at nonprofit organizations — putting these caring adults in an ideal position to recognize and respond to early signs of distress.

For many organizations it is not a big leap from their existing programming to supporting youth mental health. Sports, arts and crafts, being outside in nature, socializing with others, and so many other activities common to nonprofit youth programs – these are all key components to boosting well-being.

All of this presents an important opportunity to equip youth-serving staff with the tools and training they need to consistently and effectively support young people’s mental health.

Any community-based leader or staff member will tell you that providing mental health support is already part of the job. The reality is that they are often called upon, day or night, to help youth navigate urgent needs, typically under significant resource constraints – and too often without appropriate training or the institutional infrastructure for addressing and escalating mental health issues and crises. 

That is not sustainable, and does a disservice to both the young people and staff members. If we want to truly support youth, we have to support the people who support them by investing in training and mental health infrastructure that is effective and sustainable.

Many funders have longstanding relationships with youth-serving organizations, presenting an opportunity to extend their philanthropy to an area that can truly change lives: the mental health and emotional well-being of the young people who participate in these cherished programs. 

What does that look like in practice?

• Help organizations create strategic plans for how they will support the mental health of the youth they serve, including building basic infrastructure such as protocols, resource directories and safety nets to take pressure off individual staff members
• Fund staff training so youth workers know how to recognize emotional distress and respond appropriately
• Support partnerships between community-based organizations and mental health providers, including warm referral systems and local collaboration
• Invest in the well-being of frontline workers, many of whom are navigating secondary stress and burnout without support

Community-based organizations are uniquely positioned to meet the moment by providing critical support that can complement and extend school-based efforts. By now — and fostering stronger collaboration across every corner of the youth-serving ecosystem — we can build a more cohesive, responsive, and resilient network to support young people.

There is a persistent misunderstanding that child development mainly occurs through “sensitive periods” of brain plasticity. While these are neurobiological realities and concentrate in the early and teen years, development from ages 6 to 12. In middle childhood, what some researchers call the , the brain is fine-tuning itself for the what’s ahead. It trims away unused connections and strengthens the ones children use most, making thinking more efficient. Messages travel faster along these pathways, helping kids focus, remember and manage their impulses. This is also when brain systems for planning, problem-solving and getting along with others grow stronger, laying the foundation for the more complex learning and relationships of adolescence.

But kids this age are grappling with rising rates of anxiety and depression, unrelenting social-media pressure and even the lure of artificial intelligence “friends” that can replace real-world connection. Pediatricians and teachers are : Kids who used to skip into school are now dragging their feet, weighed down by worry.

What’s happening?

A few things. The pandemic left lasting scars. Children lost classrooms, playgrounds, routines, even relatives. Emergency room visits for mental health crises jumped 24%. Surrounding these impacts are the digital deluge. Heavy social media use is driving up depression, anxiety and isolation. Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warns of an “” later in adolescence — and the signs are already cropping up in elementary school. These elementary years are, true to their name, foundational. Socially, emotionally and academically, this is when lifelong patterns are formed. But kids this age don’t always show their struggles the way teens do. Their worries often go unspoken.

This isn’t just about protecting the middle years of childhood. It makes little sense to invest billions in the early years while limiting the impact of those investments . And it makes no sense to wait until adolescence to try to reconnect with young people who have fallen off track when it’s far easier to keep kids flourishing all the way though. Investing in middle childhood is both worthy on its own merits and a form of prevention, keeping the pipeline strong from early learning through graduation.

But here’s the hopeful part: Researchers and practitioners know what works.

show children in this age band thrive when they have safe environments, consistent relationships with caring adults and engaging opportunities to learn and play. These ingredients can’t be confined to classrooms alone. They require a community effort.

That means parents, teachers, coaches, librarians, pediatricians, afterschool staff and neighbors all pulling in the same direction. It means building out shared practices and norms: daily check-ins where kids feel seen, pediatric visits that include questions about friendships, mentors who know how to spot early warning signs, even small gestures — like a friendly “How’s school going?” — that remind children that they matter.

But for this to happen, middle childhood must be on the policy agenda. That means building smoother transitions from early learning into elementary school and from elementary into middle school, and making before- and after-school programs, summer learning and enrichment universally available for elementary-age kids, not . It also means ensuring the adults who regularly interact with this age group have the training, time and support to nurture social, emotional and cognitive growth alongside academics. If adults are caught in a whirlwind of scarcity and stress, children in the missing middle are more likely to be ignored.

Expanding the agenda is ambitious, but not unrealistic. The nation has done it before. From expanding early nutrition programs to launching Early Head Start classrooms to now passing widespread restrictions on cellphone usage during the school day, society has acted boldly for children when science and the moment demanded it. When researchers learned how toxic stress harms babies’ brains, communities responded — with warmth, conversation and responsive care. Today, communities and policymakers are actively responding to the damage it is now clear social media can wreak on adolescent brains.

Child and family stakeholders know how to mobilize  —  and need to again in order to activate communities’ collective understanding and response. Kids going through middle childhood deserve nothing less. As Dr. Gabrielle Carlson, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, “We cannot sit idly by.”

Let’s not.

On Monday, the Trump administration will release $1.3 billion in federal funds for summer and afterschool programs that it’s been holding back since July 1, the Office for Management and Budget  education advocates on Friday. That leaves $5.5 billion for teaching positions and training, migrant programs, English learners and adult education still frozen.

The move comes after  joined Democrats in pressuring OMB Director Russ Vought to release the funds. Lara Wade, spokeswoman for AASA, told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ that having hundreds of superintendents on Capitol Hill last week meeting with members of Congress also “could have been a motivating force.”

But Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member of the appropriations committee, said releasing just a portion of the funds isn’t good enough. â€œEvery penny of this funding must flow immediately,” she said in a statement.

On Thursday, she blocked the fast-track consideration of a Trump administration nominee over the issue. Mary Christina Riley, nominated to serve as assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs at the Education Department, will now have to get through the education committee before the Senate votes on her confirmation.

Democratic-led states the Trump administration Monday over its freeze of nearly $7 billion in education funds, saying the delay has already “irreparably harmed” critical academic and extracurricular programs. 

For two weeks, the White House Office of Management and Budget has been conducting what it calls a “programmatic review” of funds for English learners, migrant programs, teacher training and afterschool programs — money it claims has been “grossly misused to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda.”

“President Trump seems comfortable risking the academic success of a generation to further his own misguided political agenda,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in . “But as with so many of his other actions, this funding freeze is blatantly illegal, and we’re confident the court will agree.”

Blue state leaders aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch. In a summer camp for 300 students was cut short, while an Ohio nonprofit says it will have to cancel afterschool programs this fall if the funds aren’t released. 

Georgia state Superintendent called releasing the funds a matter of fiscal responsibility. “In Georgia, we’re getting ready to start the school year, so I call on federal funds to be released so we can ensure the success of our students,” Eric Mackey, the Alabama state superintendent, said he was caught off guard by what he called a Losing the money, he told a local reporter, would be “a real problem for us.” 

Neither OMB nor the Education Department responded to requests for comment.

The lawsuit dropped the same day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the administration can proceed with firing roughly half of the Education Department’s staff, further adding to the chaos districts have felt since January. The delay has been one more jolt from an administration that’s been quick to withdraw funding that the Republican-led Congress already approved. These particular funds are part of the fiscal year 2025 budget that President Donald Trump signed in March. 

“We were looking really good, and then you get something like this,” said Gordon Klasna, executive director of secondary education for the Billings Public Schools, Montana’s largest district. He’s wondering how to pay for the nine teachers who keep elementary class sizes capped at 22 students. Without them, classes would grow to 28 students, which, Klansa said, “can be substantial when you have lots of kids who are behind.”

With a new resettlement office that opened last year, the city has seen an influx of refugees. The roughly $30,000 the district normally receives for English learners helps pay for curriculum and translation services — not just for immigrants, but also for Native American students and families, some of whom still speak an indigenous language at home. 

‘No idea it was coming’

shared similar stories on Capitol Hill last week during an to Washington, where many members of Congress said they were also blindsided by the freeze.

“The offices I visited with had no idea it was coming and were wondering what other people had heard,” said David Law, superintendent of the Minnetonka Public Schools in Minnesota and president of AASA, the School Superintendents Association.

Their stories prompted Democrats in both the and to put more pressure on OMB Director Russ Vought and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to free up the funds. In a letter, senators said they were “shocked by the continued lack of respect for states and local schools evidenced by this latest action.”

OMB pointed to a few examples of programs it alleged conflict with the administration’s priorities, including one in Washington state that it said “used funds to direct illegal immigrants toward scholarships intended for American students.” 

Sammi Payne, a management analyst with the Washington state education department, said officials aren’t sure which program OMB is referring to, but it could be the . Established in 1972, the program, which under both Democratic and Republican administrations, provides counseling, tutoring and housing assistance to migrant students during their first year of college.

“Our management and implementation of this funding is consistent with the law,” Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in a statement. “American prosperity has always been a function of embracing immigrants and lifting up those who need additional support to access education and opportunity.” 

‘Can’t write enough grants’

A few states have stepped in to provide short-term support during the pause. Just as an Alabama nonprofit was about to cancel an afterschool program for this fall, the state education department provided some funds left over from the previous year. 

“Our programs are the only option for our children and our working families,” said Andrea Bridges, executive director of the , which serves a rural, high-poverty community about 30 minutes outside Huntsville. Federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers funds support services at three schools. “I can’t write enough grants to come up with $700,000. I could do babysitting, but that’s not what these programs are.” 

Students in the program receive academic support, work on a lot of STEM projects and learn to play musical instruments. But they also focus on college and workforce readiness. She’s watched the graduation rate climb from about 64%, when the nonprofit launched the program 25 years ago, to over 90%. 

“When I say these funds are essential, that’s what I’m talking about,” she said. “It changes the socioeconomic status of the whole community. Everybody wins when kids graduate from high school.”

Verlena Stewart, director of Community Building Institute in Middleton, Ohio, north of Cincinnati, also relies on federal funds to run afterschool and summer learning programs. She was about to shut the summer camp down two weeks early when the Middleton city manager called her and said, “Come pick up a check for $60,000,” she said.

That will get the camp for about 100 students through July 25 and means kids will still get to go on field trips to a movie and Jungle Jim’s, a massive international market and shopping destination. But if the funds aren’t reinstated, the nonprofit won’t be able to offer its afterschool program this fall. 

The center, she said, would keep its doors open for “less formal recreation,” but would have to recruit volunteers to help students with reading and math. 

‘Unfunded mandate’

The White House may no longer want to fund education for English learners and migrant students, but districts are still legally obligated to provide language support, whether they have the funds or not, said Tara Thomas, government affairs manager, for AASA. The requires states to report students’ progress toward mastering English as well as their performance in math, reading and science.

“By cutting off these funds, you’re just expanding the unfunded mandate on schools,” Thomas said. Districts, she said, factored the federal money into their budgets months ago.

In Wyoming, Chase Christensen, superintendent and principal of the one-school Sheridan County School District, was expecting more than $15,000 to give teachers a second year of training in a new math curriculum. Now, he may have to find another way to pay the consultants providing the training.

He doesn’t want to drop non-academic programs either. He was about to shut down a jiu jitsu program that costs about $20,000. But students love it, and he thinks it builds confidence and “sticktoitiveness” that helps them academically.

“It’s just amazing watching kindergarteners do their takedowns. It’s the only time in my career that I’ve had kids get black eyes at school, and I’m not getting calls from their parents about what happened,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I can to keep it going.”

The funds, which states normally can access by July 1, pay for staff salaries, teacher training, curriculum materials and other essential expenses. That means states and districts will likely have to cut those functions or find other ways to pay for them. The delay, for example, threatens over $1.3 billion in funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which goes to schools, libraries and nonprofits that provide tutoring and enrichment programs. 

“We will very quickly see more children and youth unsupervised and at risk, more academic failures, more hungry kids, more chronic absenteeism, higher dropout rates, more parents forced out of their jobs,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, an advocacy organization. 

The possible cancellation of additional federal funds for schools adds to the upheaval created by the elimination of existing grants and contracts amid Trump’s ongoing efforts to shut down the department. His proposed fiscal 2026 budget would also shrink over $6.5 billion for 18 programs into a $2 billion block grant. Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon assured members of the that special education funding and Title I grants for high-poverty schools would be “level funded,” according to a recording of the meeting shared with ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ. But she never mentioned the fate of the other programs, and state leaders didn’t ask.

Trump officials based Monday’s move on “the change in administrations,” even though the president the budget on March 15. The department, the note said, has not yet made decisions about “awards for this upcoming academic year” and remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president’s priorities.” 

If the administration follows through with clawing back the funds, the move is certain to spark another lawsuit. Federal courts have mitigated the effects of previous cuts. McMahon, for example, tried to rescind over $2 billion in remaining COVID relief funds until 15 states and the District of Columbia . 

Last week, in response, she told all states with remaining funds that to avoid “uniformity and fairness problems,” they could once again submit receipts for reimbursement.

A seldomly used law, the , allows the administration to withhold funds that Congress appropriates, but the president has to first seek lawmakers’ approval, which he didn’t do in this case. Last week, Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told senators that officials were to hold on to funds intended for some agencies, but both Democrats and Republicans appeared skeptical. 

In a statement Tuesday, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, ranking Democrat on the appropriations committee, said the freeze will impact students in every ZIP code.

“President Trump and Russ Vought need to stop sabotaging our students’ futures and get these resources out the door,” she said. “Local school districts can’t afford to wait out lengthy court proceedings to get the federal funding they’re owed — nor can they make up the shortfall, especially not at the drop of a pin.”

Some advocates called on the Senate to delay final confirmation of Trump’s education department nominees, including Penny Schwinn as deputy education secretary and Kimberly Richey to lead the Office for Civil Rights, until the funds are released. 

The organizations, including All4Ed, EdTrust, Educators for Excellence and the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the department’s move as “a potential violation of federal law and a direct threat to the educational opportunities of our nation’s most vulnerable students.”

In addition to the funding for afterschool programs, states are waiting on over $2 billion to recruit and train teachers, especially for high-needs schools; almost $900 million to support English learners; and $376 million for migrant education programs.

Gustavo Balderas, president of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, and superintendent of the Beaverton, Oregon, district, said districts nationwide would feel the pinch.

“Districts are already stretched financially and this will be another unanticipated reduction to America’s public school system,” he said. “With school starting in a few weeks, budgets will have to be restructured and some staff positions will have to be reduced.”  

Districts may also lose their chance to spend federal funds on such programs in the future, if they find another way to pick up costs this year. The “supplement, not supplant” rule in the Every Student Succeeds Act holds that if a district used state or local funds for a program, then they don’t need federal dollars to cover it, explained Matt Colwell, who previously oversaw federal programs for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

“The law severely limits what they can do once they lock into paying for it with state funds,” he said. He also wondered whether staff reductions played a role in holding up the funds. “‘We are looking into it’ could be a way around saying, ‘We fired all the people that actually take care of this.’ ”

Out-of-school programs — enrichment programs that occur after school or during the summer — offer structured environments where students engage in meaningful activities, build relationships and develop essential life skills. They often serve as a bridge between school, home and the community, and for kids from low-income families, high-quality out-of-school programs can play an outsized role in their development.

“This idea that society should put all development and learning into this institution called school is problematic. In today’s world it doesn’t make sense,” says Tom Akiva, professor at the University of Pittsburgh whose research focuses on out-of-school learning. “The school setting has many of the standard areas we think of as learning: science, math, reading. But a lot of important learning happens in out-of-school time. Things like social skills, leadership, and a lot of interest development.”

A from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine examines the impact and effectiveness of these programs, offering the major take-away that they’re far more important than policymakers and parents likely realize. Yet gaps in access, funding limitations in the current political climate and workforce challenges hinder their potential impact.

“Eighty percent of waking hours are spent in informal learning, or out-of-school learning,” says Akiva, who helped author the report. “From a developmental psychology perspective, you’re learning in every environment you’re in. So lots of really important life learning happens outside.”

The 347-page report is the first comprehensive examination of out-of-school programs in more than two decades, and comes at a moment when the ecosystem is more diverse in its offerings than ever. These range from play-based experiences for younger students that boost social skills, imagination and creativity — and operate more like child care than anything — to more specialized experiences for older students, like a chess club, karate program or pottery class. Sports and theater programs offer important opportunities for team-building, while academic enrichment programs can help students who are behind catch up.

that well-designed, high-quality programs enhance academic motivation and increase school attendance, effectively promoting long-term educational success. And while it’s no wonder that tens of millions of families are eager to enroll their children, many are locked out.  

In 2020, 24.6 million children wanted to enroll in out-of-school programs but ran headfirst into roadblocks such as high costs and transportation challenges, the latest available data show. A whopping 11 million children from low-income families were unable to participate in out-of-school programs, perhaps unsurprisingly suggesting barriers to access are not evenly distributed.

“For a lot of kids from affluent backgrounds, it’s kind of just an understood opportunity,” says Deborah Moroney, vice president of American Institutes for Research and chair of the National Academies committee that oversaw the research and production of the report. “But there’s a real opportunity gap for young people who come from marginalized communities and identities in terms of inclusion. There is a supply of out-of-school time opportunities that are subsidized or offered at a reduced cost, but it is not meeting the demand for the young people who can’t otherwise pay.”

Much of that is due to a fractured funding system, which has improved and grown significantly compared to two decades ago, but remains poorly coordinated and unreliable and has not kept pace with the growth in demand. The report goes so far as to call the existence of out-of-school programs “precarious,” noting that they exist “at the whim of one foundation board meeting or election.”

“The field has evolved, the funding has increased and things have formalized in terms of quality and experiences that participants have access to, but it’s still not meeting the demand,” Moroney says. “Funding stability still isn’t there, and that’s causing major problems for the organizers.” 

As it stands, the main federal funding stream for out-of-school programs is the $1.3 billion 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants — though it’s unclear whether that funding will exist in the coming years as the Trump administration pursues funding cuts and consolidating existing programs into flexible block grants. Other than California’s long-standing matching grant to fund programs for its residents, only a handful of other states invest significantly, including Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Underscoring just how fragile many of these programs are, the U.S. Education Department’s decision to halt pandemic aid reimbursement extensions is already hitting summer and afterschool programs. The Maryland Out of School Time Network estimates that Baltimore will lose roughly 12,000 seats for summer opportunities this year as a result.

The report recommends that the out-of-school programs be coordinated centrally and woven into the nation’s safety net, instead of its piecemeal state of affairs — a proposal that seems unlikely given the current fiscal environment. 

To be sure, the financing of the system is also tethered to the competency and quality of the workforce, which, much like the child care sector, is beset by a host of challenges: low wages, high turnover, job-related stress and no real cohesion or organization of the profession.

“This is a workforce that historically has come from the communities in which they’re serving,” says Moroney. “They have a great passion for the work, but it’s an unrecognized workforce. They are, traditionally, a low-wage workforce. They want to stay in the field, but there’s not the same kind of career pipelines and trajectories that there might be in some other fields.” 

Given that the workforce plays an outsized role in the effective operation of out-of-school programs, Moroney says that it’s imperative for states and districts to figure out ways to elevate it, including how to recruit and retain workers. The report concludes that professional development, competitive salaries and career pathways can enhance workforce stability and improve program quality — though, again, policy experts say it’s difficult in the current fiscal environment, to imagine a scenario where those are priorities. 

“I think if we were to invest in the workforce, we would see changes throughout the education ecosystem,” agrees Akiva. “If we figure out how to support this workforce better — because they’re really doing important, invisible work in society — then I think we would see positive change radiating out.”

Through a unique collaboration between the and , the community now ranks 12th in state literacy, up from 31st just four years ago. This dramatic improvement wasn’t magic — it was the result of a systematic, community-wide approach to literacy that could serve as a model for districts nationwide.

The key to our success? A comprehensive public-private partnership that treats literacy as a community mission rather than just a school district initiative. The Learning Alliance, a nonprofit based in Vero Beach, has created an integrated support system that extends from birth through elementary school and beyond.

Its partnership with the school district works because it addresses literacy from multiple angles all in service of one goal — 90% of students reading on grade level by the end of third grade. 

To achieve this goal, the alliance funds 25 literacy coaches and reading interventionist positions within the district, ensuring that every school has dedicated expertise to implement the science of reading in grades K through 3. The district provides similar support in older grades. 

But that’s not all. The nonprofit engages families with children from birth to age 5, providing more than 5,500 age-appropriate books and 1,700 learning kits annually to under-resourced families. It also supports robust after-school and summer tutoring programs through the Moonshot Academy, where students show 50% more growth in reading compared to their peers not in the program. The afterschool program runs in the district schools, largely with district teachers compensated for their extra work by the Alliance.

The results speak for themselves. Indian River has doubled the percentage of A- and B-rated schools from 47% to 95%, and our third-grade reading scores now outperform the state average by nine percentage points (64% versus 55%). These aren’t just statistics — they represent thousands of children who now have the foundational skills they need to succeed in school and life.

Critical to this success has been the Moonshot Community Action Network, a coalition of over 150 local leaders who ensure that early literacy remains a community priority. This network includes business leaders, healthcare providers, faith-based organizations, and community advocates who understand that literacy is fundamental to our community’s future prosperity.

For superintendents and district leaders reading this, we offer several practical recommendations:

• First, look beyond traditional funding models. While public education funding is essential, strategic partnerships with community organizations can provide both financial resources and expertise that complement district capabilities.

• Second, invest in literacy coaches and reading interventionists. Having dedicated literacy experts in every school creates a support system for teachers and ensures consistent implementation of evidence-based reading instruction.

• Third, extend your teaching time. Our Moonshot Academy afterschool program creates opportunities for students to make more progress in less time. It pairs intensive tutoring with enrichment activities to boost engagement, and it works: students in the afterschool program average at least 50% more growth in reading than peers who do not participate. 

• Fourth, expand your reach beyond school walls. The family partnerships program demonstrates that literacy support must begin before kindergarten and continue outside school hours to be truly effective.

• Fifth, build community coalitions. The broader community’s investment in literacy creates a sustainable ecosystem of support that survives changes in school leadership or funding fluctuations.

For philanthropists and community organizations, think beyond traditional grant-making. The most effective partnerships involve deep collaboration with schools, shared accountability for outcomes, and a long-term commitment to the community.

Our journey hasn’t been without challenges, but it’s proven that significant improvements in literacy are possible with the right partnership model. The students’ success isn’t just about test scores – it’s about creating a foundation for lifelong learning and opportunity.

The pandemic may have created unprecedented challenges for education, but it has also shown us the power of community collaboration. In Indian River County, we’ve demonstrated that when schools and community organizations work together with shared purpose and accountability, we can achieve remarkable results.

The question isn’t whether this model can work. The question is: Who will be next to replicate it?

SPRINGFIELD – Advocates for community-based after-school programs say as many as 40,000 youths statewide could lose access to tutoring services, recreation and other extracurricular activities this summer unless Illinois lawmakers approve an infusion of funds to keep them going.

“The time is now for legislators to act to save after-school (programs),” Susan Stanton, executive director of Afterschool for Children and Teens, or ACT Now, said at a Statehouse rally Tuesday. “We literally only have weeks left before programs have to shut their doors. Staff will be laid off and families will be in crisis.”

ACT Now is a coalition of groups such as local YMCA chapters, Boys & Girls Club, and other community-based organizations that provide academic enrichment activities and other services during non-school hours for children and teens, particularly those attending high-minority, low-performing schools.

The programs that are at risk receive federal funding through the U.S. Department of Education’s . 

That money flows through the Illinois State Board of Education, which awards competitive grants to local programs. Those grants are made in three-year or five-year cycles. At the end of that cycle, the grants can either be renewed or the organization can reapply through a new competitive grant process.

The problem facing many programs whose grant cycles are expiring is that in 2023,  how much money was available and made commitments to award more grants than the state could fund. As a result, many programs whose grant cycles are expiring cannot get them renewed because there is not enough funding available. Advocates are seeking $50 million in state funding to make up for the anticipated shortfall.

Stanton said programs serving about 6,000 students were forced to close at the end of the previous fiscal year, and without an injection of state funds, another 40,000 students will lose access to services after June 30 this year.

State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, has proposed legislation that would commit $50 million a year in state funds for the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers.

“It’s not enough for us to say we support quality, safe and vibrant learning environments for our youth. We have to provide funding for that to happen,” Villivalam said. “I believe … that investing in childhood education is an investment in our future communities, and not something we should take lightly.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget proposal calls for about $234 million for after-school programs, most of which would come from federal money. But Stanton said that is a different program that sends funds for after-school programs directly to school districts, not to the community-based organizations that receive 21^stCentury Community Learning Center funding.

Programs that add hours and support to the school day, are especially critical for low-income students who were set back the most during the pandemic, according to the report, “The Expanded Classroom.” Those students’ families can’t pay for tutoring, museum visits, and arts activities that more affluent families can.

“The classroom has been the primary venue for helping students learn, build relationships, and develop skills for the workforce,” according to the report. â€œBut in the current era, such activities must transcend the classroom to help kids fully recover from learning loss, close longstanding achievement gaps, and prepare students for 21st-century careers.”

Only one quarter of Indiana students are able to attend these programs, the report found, but many more should be added, not reduced, as will happen if money runs out in the next two years. 

“Effort must be sustained over years—not months—to make up for the lost time of the pandemic and to begin to chip away at a decades-old gap in educational outcomes between high- and low-income students,” states the report, a joint project of the United Way of Central Indiana, the Boys and Girls Clubs serving South Bend and Indianapolis, and nonprofit education advocacy groups The Mind Trust and Indiana Afterschool Network.

Since the start of the pandemic, the state has devoted $35 million of federal COVID relief money to out-of-school learning, plus another $185 million in state money. The federal money runs out next fall and the state money runs out in the summer of 2025.

Mind Trust officials said they hope the report rallies support for out-of-school learning with legislators ahead of the 2025-2027 state budget debate. The report doesn’t ask for a specific amount of money or for money for any particular program, just for understanding the importance of learning outside of the school day.

“It’s really to make sure that our state leaders, legislators and others are thinking about the out-of-school time programs in Indiana as an important part of the ecosystem, and not as something that is just a time-limited program that’s about COVID recovery, and nothing else,” said Mind Trust chief strategy officer Kristin Grimme.

State Rep. Bob Behning, chairman of the House Education Committee, said there’s support for programs outside of the school day in the Legislature. But he cautioned there will be competition for money in the next budget.

“I would predict it’s going to be tight, tighter than we’ve had the last couple of budget cycles,” Behning said. “So you’re going to have to really define not just the need, but that there are gains. Once you can define the academic gains. I think that there would be more interest.”

Grimme agreed and said programs need to be evaluated and money should go to those that were the most successful. Some programs have evaluations pending while others have emerging data on their academic impact that should be reviewed next year.

Adding academic gains is extra important because Indiana’s recovery from the pandemic has “stalled,” the report contends. Though state test scores have improved since 2021, reading proficiency rates fell slightly between 2022 and 2023 while other gains were small.

 Indiana also saw college enrollment drop from 65 percent of graduating high school seniors before the pandemic to 53 percent in 2020–21.

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The report highlights the Indy Summer Learning Labs the Mind Trust and United Way have organized in Indianapolis using state money the last three years. That five-week program serving more than 5,000 students in 43 different sites around the city shows double-digit gains in proficiency rates in the tests students take at the start of the program and at the end.

Last summer, the labs saw 23 percentage point increases in students scoring at grade level or above in English and 22 percentage points in math.

The state will soon take applications from organizations around the state to expand that summer program to other cities, though money set aside for them ends in 2025.

Indiana Learns, another program that gives $1,000 grants to low-income parents to spend on tutoring or afterschool programs for their children, is being evaluated now to see if it needs changes. With more than 10,000 students using more than 100 different tutoring providers, Grimme said, it’s hard to know if Indiana Learns is reaching the right students and if they are getting what they need.

“I do think it’s something that we launched quickly to try to support students and families across the state,” Grimme said. “Is it the version of the program that the state should sustain in the future?”

Colorado’s first-ever is set to meet Monday at the Paonia K-8 school in Delta County.

The club was requested by a parent, who contacted June Everett, campaign director of After School Satan Club and an ordained minister of The Satanic Temple — a church whose mission, according to its website, encourages benevolence and empathy, rejects tyrannical authority, advocates practical common sense, opposes injustice, and undertakes noble pursuits.

Everett, a Colorado resident, told Newsline she became involved with ASSC in 2017, after her first-grader came home from school crying and “very upset” after friends told him he and his family would “burn in hell” and that he’d be taken away from his parents because they are agnostic and did not attend church.

His friends attended an after-school program called the Good News Club, Everett said. The Good News Club is a ministry of Missouri-based Child Evangelism Fellowship, with after-school clubs throughout the United States. According to its website, it is a “Bible-centered organization composed of born-again believers whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living.”

Everett said the Delta County parent who contacted her wanted an alternative to the Good News Club at the Western Slope elementary school. Three volunteers from western Colorado, all of whom have undergone criminal background checks, will lead the ASSC meetings, Everett said.

The Satanic Temple establishes ASSCs in schools only where there are Good News Clubs or other similar religious clubs operating. Families must fill out permission slips for their children to attend any after-school club. As of Thursday, seven children were signed up for the Satan Club in Paonia. Everett expects more may come the day of the meeting.

The club has no set curriculum, she said. Instead, volunteers are allowed to create activities that align with the group’s seven tenets “designed to inspire nobility in action and thought,” including such things as “acting with compassion and empathy toward all creatures,” according to its . The group does not worship the devil, or proselytize, Everett said.

‘Satan is a symbol’

After Milford Central School in upstate New York initially prohibited a Good News Club from operating at its school due to its policies not allowing groups to rent space for religious purposes, Child Evangelism Fellowship fought back, resulting in a 2001 in favor of the Good News Club. The ruling is what allows After School Satan Clubs to also meet on school property, Everett said.

“We are a religious organization, we are a church,” Everett said. “We have deeply held religious beliefs. However, we’re non-theistic. We don’t believe Satan is real. We don’t believe in the supernatural. Satan is a symbol” of standing up to the tyrannical.

Everett said she is part of a Colorado congregation with members that meet in four different regions of the state.

Three ASSC meetings are scheduled at the school for the 2023 spring semester. Depending on the interest, Everett said the club could meet more often next year.

Jeani Kell of Grand Junction is the area director for Child Evangelism Fellowship. She said the Good News Club has operated at the Paonia school for several years. There are 3,500 Good News Club chapters across the nation.

“We don’t debate with (the Satan Club),” Kell said. “We never picket against them. We don’t oppose them.”

Threats of violence have erupted in some areas of the country where After School Satan Clubs have formed, or are in the process of being launched. In February, caused one school where an ASSC had been established to close for two days. And in Pennsylvania a school canceled its plan to allow an ASSC to meet at the school after administrators received an email threatening violence, Everett said.

Delta County schools Superintendent Caryn Gibson said the district has received some phone calls from parents concerned about the name of the Satan Club.

“We don’t have anything to do with the club,” Gibson said. “We’re just renting space.”

All after-school clubs fill out a fair-use agreement and pay a fee to rent the school property.

“We want people to know we do not discriminate,” Gibson said. “That’s where it is.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on and .

STEM knowledge and skills are increasingly necessary to prepare students for the job market. of all occupations in the United States — in engineering, information technology, health care, construction and multiple other fields — require STEM competency. In the coming years, that share is predicted to grow.

Addressing underrepresentation and career preparation issues starts with the education system, but it is too much to ask schools to solve these problems by themselves. Some is spent outside the classroom. That leaves plenty of time for other important and overlooked approaches — such as afterschool and out-of-school programs — that can offer additional time and more sustained opportunities to provide career exploration programming and augment the STEM teaching and learning that happens during the school day.

Afterschool and other out-of-school time settings can students’ grades, class behavior and homework completion. They also can provide for hands-on learning, play and other interesting activities that can spark a lifelong interest in STEM. Afterschool and out-of-school programs often have the flexibility to focus on students’ critical learning needs in ways schools cannot. They also can target and reach girls and other underrepresented populations with hands-on STEM learning opportunities that schools aren’t always equipped to offer. If students are set up for greater educational success earlier in their lives, the nation can construct stronger school-to-career pipelines that can produce more diverse and highly skilled talent.

Policymakers, including the new Congress, should continue to invest in programs that expand STEM education outside of school time to ensure that more young people have access to rigorous, relevant and joyful learning. For example, the program provides federal funding to community-based organizations, small businesses and other entities that offer high-quality afterschool and out-of-school experiences to more than 1.5 million youth annually. And it’s working: The Afterschool Alliance the centers supported by this program have had positive impacts on student learning and growth and provided critical academic, emotional and social support to youth and their families during the pandemic.

The Education Innovation and Research grant program and the National Science Foundation’s STEM Education Directorate also are critical sources of funding. Congress should continue sufficient appropriations for these programs in particular, as well as to that support afterschool STEM.

Additional executive actions can further support the growth of out-of-school STEM learning. The Biden administration has already invested billions of dollars in high-quality tutoring, summer learning and afterschool programs through the , and . Billions of dollars in went to state education agencies and local school districts to beef up comprehensive afterschool, summer learning and extended school day and school year programming. 

To continue this momentum, the U.S. Department of Education should establish a to help states and local school districts use federal funds to develop engaging and high-quality STEM learning opportunities that can get students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic . This initiative could more closely connect the department’s programs and policies to future workforce needs and help states and districts identify new grant programs and non-government partners to advance STEM learning.

Though recent federal actions demonstrate a clear commitment to leveraging the power of afterschool and out-of-school programs that focus on academic growth and well-being, these federally funded programs have so far lacked a specific focus on career exploration and workforce development. Going forward, federal and state policymakers must ensure their education initiatives include incentives for STEM learning and career preparation. Also, programs designed to develop and expand career pathways into STEM and other in-demand fields should include afterschool and out-of-school components so they can reach students outside the regular school day.

Successful approaches also require public and private partnerships with nonprofits, foundations and other organizations looking to show youth that STEM careers are within their reach. Jobs for the Future and STEM Next together are supporting , a free program designed to increase STEM opportunities for students in grades 6 to 10 by helping them explore STEM careers, gain valuable job skills and learn more about themselves and the modern world of work. is an afterschool campaign focused on equipping young women with the tools to become creative thinkers, problem solvers and innovators. Its youth ambassador program lets policymakers learn directly from participants and their families which approaches to STEM instruction work best. New federal investments might provide a historic opportunity to make more programs like these happen. 

Because the lines between education and the workforce are for students, and STEM skills are increasingly important for success in today’s fast-changing world of work, learning cannot stop at the end of the school day. Creating and investing in afterschool and out-of-school programs that promote STEM education is essential for setting up students for long-term success. 

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides financial support to Jobs for the Future and  ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ. The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies provide financial support to the STEM Next Opportunity Fund and ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ.

Every day across America, millions of people work or volunteer in the many settings where young people play, learn and grow outside of school. Afterschool coordinators build spaces for connection and support and help with homework. Camp counselors and outdoor educators take young people on adventurous and educational trips. Volunteers serve as mentors, coach athletic teams and organize reading programs at public libraries.

These are just some of the committed individuals who make youth development happen. They include vibrant and robust groups of social workers, music teachers, librarians, museum staff and numerous other professionals and volunteers who enrich children’s lives daily.

But the system they work in is fragmented. Funding for youth services is often inadequate, pay is low and there is a lack of clear career pathways. Critical information that other sectors know about their workforces has never been gathered. A first step in making the youth development ecosystem more connected and cohesive is to collect basic data about those working on behalf of children. For example: 

Who they are: What is their age, gender, race and socioeconomic status?

What are their skills and experience: What degrees and certificates have they earned? What other jobs have they held? What professional development do they currently receive, and what do they need to help them improve?

What is their compensation: Are they paid? How much do they make? What benefits do they receive? How does their salary compare with the compensation earned by professionals in similar positions in other sectors? If they volunteer, what motivates them to do so?

Right now, there is only fragmented or limited localized data about the community of workers who contribute to the growth of the nation’s children and youth. To gather reliable and comparable data about who is serving today’s youth — information that is necessary to improve and support the youth development fields — the American Institutes for Research and the Wallace Foundation, in partnership with , launched the . This national research effort is designed to learn more about the staff and volunteers working with youth beyond the classroom.

In addition to uncovering basic facts about demographics, compensation and workforce skills, the survey collects information that will create a comprehensive map of the workforce across national, state and local organizations and inform rapidly changing policies and practices across the field.

The American Youth Policy Forum will use the survey results in educating and engaging policymakers and local nonprofit leaders to understand career and volunteer opportunities and create pipelines for career growth.

In many ways, the field is playing catch-up. Professionals such as lawyers, doctors and teachers have similar information readily available, allowing them to set career goals, identify professional development opportunities and create personal financial plans. Right now, only a few sectors in youth services can access that type of information, and when they do, it’s incomplete. For example, the Early Childhood Workforce index provides state-by-state data and other information that enables practitioners to plan and advocate for future needs and funding. 

Tutors, coaches, afterschool staff and volunteers, and the many other professionals serving children and youth deserve similar information to help them advance their careers. For volunteers in particular, the data could help them evaluate whether there are enough adequate opportunities for high-quality jobs to make a full-time commitment to improving the lives of young people.

The survey will also provide data that will be a launching point for analysis by researchers, economists studying the workforce and policymakers working to improve youth services.  In addition, the American Institutes of Research will write case studies with the National Institute of Out-of School Time that will illustrate the diversity of youth-serving fields, profile real-world successes and allow youth services workers and volunteers to tell their stories.

This research is not a panacea. It alone will not fix all systemic problems in youth services. But it will be an important step in the right direction. It will begin to provide a professional development and career roadmap for those currently serving the nation’s youth, and provide guidance and incentives to a new generation who chose a career in helping America’s greatest treasure: its young people.

The department also said districts could apply for as much as 14 months of extra time to allocate the resources. 

The guidance comes as large groups of state and district superintendents and other education officials are publicly pushing federal officials for clarification on spending deadlines for the nearly $190 billion in total relief aid distributed to schools during the pandemic. 

As for where funds have already been allocated, K-12 Dive by the team at the Georgetown University think tank FutureEd which captures a trend of robust investment in literacy training and development for educators amid widening achievement gaps and flagging reading abilities for students just learning to read. 

Phyllis Jordan, associate director at FutureEd, says that the federal infusion of unprecedented amounts of resources into America’s schools during the pandemic has led to an increase in phonics-based instruction that is evidence-based and aligned to the “Science of Reading.” Jordan points to states like , , and as examples of statewide investments and programming driving improvements in literacy instruction. 

Looking beyond relief funds, here are eight other updates from across the country about how states and school systems are confronting the challenges posed by COVID-19 and its variants — and working to preserve student progress amid the pandemic:

IDAHO — After-School Programs Help Break Down Learning Barriers

A group of Idaho education leaders met to discuss at a conference held on the Fort Hall Reservation in Eastern Idaho. The group raised a multitude of factors compounding to make progress more difficult for students, including pandemic-era learning loss, increased rates of suicides and suicide ideation, and poor access to nutrition or housing. Many of the officials gathered to underscore their belief that after-school programs could be key to breaking down such challenges. “One of the areas we have a real need to serve in our community is providing our kids opportunities they wouldn’t normally get, like dance, taekwondo, art, or music,” said American Falls School District Superintendent Randy Jensen. 

COLORADO – New Federal Grant will Bolster Family Engagement in Colorado Schools

A new in eight states, including Colorado, where officials in the Alamosa School District say the $4.7 million grant is helping them build ways for parents to influence school policies and governance, prop up family literacy programs, and explicitly train parents on working alongside their school boards. Still left to implement are plans to create a parent liaison unit at every school and expand a relatively new home visit program, says one official from Alamosa schools. 

NEW JERSEY — Information Literacy Curriculum Bill Clears Assembly Panel

New Jersey’s General Assembly will soon consider a bill that would create a set of standards for student “information literacy,” a move that, if passed, would require schools to strengthen the development of student critical thinking and research skills. Proponents of the bill say such skills are essential in the digital era, as misinformation and manipulation rapidly increase online, and as more and more people, especially younger generations, increasingly get their news from prominent social media platforms. 

OREGON – Oregon Students Show Steep Decline in Achievement Post-COVID

Oregon schools are . Oregon Department of Education Director Colt Gill acknowledged the role the pandemic played in disrupting schools and student learning, but said he wasn’t “second-guessing” decisions that state officials made over the past two years. Instead of lamenting on the decisions made to prioritize student and educator health, Gill said he’s focused on efforts to accelerate learning, with an eye toward the content students need to learn in a given academic year, so they can be successful the following year.

MARYLAND – New Baltimore Teacher Certification Program Helping with Staff Concerns

A new teaching certification program in Baltimore is seeking to address . Established in partnership with nonprofit TNTP, the Black Educator Excellence Cohort provides financial assistance to aspiring Black educators and aims to attract more diverse teaching candidates in the city’s teaching force. Lawrence Brooks, who is Black, said she wished the cohort had existed when she went through the program. “Opportunities like this are important because they can help ensure students eventually have teachers who look like them,” she said. 

TEXAS – Fort Worth ISD Invests Federal Funds to Boost Family Engagement

After experiencing an uptick in chronic student absenteeism, Fort Worth Independent School District used federal relief dollars to to strengthen the relationship between its schools and families. Monica Ordaz, Caesar Chavez Elementary School principal, sings the praises of their family engagement specialist, Sara Olivo. According to Ordaz, Olivo has been a huge benefit to the school by taking extra responsibilities off other support staff and engaging with families in a way they couldn’t before. School leaders say they are worried they may not be able to sustain these positions and continue to meet the needs of their families once the federal funds are gone.

NEW YORK – New York City’s Apprenticeship Boom for High School Students

New York City high schools are set to expand their “Modern Apprentice” program to increase students’ opportunities to learn skills and gain real world experience in business without financial barriers. “(This) is about getting our students out to the professional world to explore their interests and invest in themselves, their futures, their families, and ultimately in their communities,” said New York City Chancellor David Banks. The Modern Apprentice program is part of CareerWise, a three-year apprentice model created in Colorado based on job training in Switzerland, where apprenticeships are common in most fields. Although students are not guaranteed jobs after the three years, it is possible they could stay with the company or utilize their new skills and experience to secure another job or attend school. 

TENNESSEE —  High School Grad Rate Show Rebounds to Pre-Pandemic Level

Encouraging numbers show Tennessee schools appearing to be successfully recovering from pandemic disruptions as . In a statement, Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn credited educators and families for positioning this year’s nearly 65,000 high school graduates to “achieve their dreams and goals.” With the state’s goal of increasing its students’ chances of employment and higher income earning, education leaders believe this is a step in the right direction to get its students to pursue post-secondary credentials or degrees. 

This update on pandemic recovery in education collects and shares news updates from the district, state, and national levels as all stakeholders continue to work on developing safe, innovative plans to resume schooling and address learning loss. It’s an offshoot of the Collaborative for Student Success’ QuickSheet newsletter, which you can .

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday announced — a partnership with five leading organizations to bring information and research about out-of-school-time programs together into one “centralized, readily available location.” The department will seek applications from an outside organization for a $3-$4 million contract in next year’s budget to run the initiative. 

“We’re at a pivotal point In America’s recovery,” Cardona said during an event in Washington D.C. involving students, education officials and advocates. “If we can reopen school during a pandemic, we can make sure students have access to quality programs.”

The event coincided with National Summer Learning Week, but Cardona didn’t offer specific details on how districts already running this year’s summer programs can benefit.

Coming a week after Cardona joined with White House officials to announce a new effort to recruit 250,000 , the announcement is the latest from the administration to emphasize urgency in addressing learning loss and students’ disconnection from school during the pandemic. According to the department’s release, the effort builds on two decades of funding for afterschool and summer learning programs in low-income schools through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants.The department seeks $1.3 billion in the fiscal year 2023 budget for 21st Century funding, an increase of $50 million over 2021 and 2022.

“We know that our young people have lost contact with friends, teachers and mentors over the past two years,” Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, said in a statement. The organization is part of the effort, along with the Afterschool Alliance, the National Comprehensive Center, the National League of Cities and the National Summer Learning Association.

The new initiative can be helpful if it advises states how to use existing federal grant programs to pay for summer and afterschool when American Rescue Plan funding dries up, said Nicholas Munyan-Penney, a senior policy analyst at Education Reform Now. This week, the think tank released on how states are already using relief funds for summer school. 

Experts could also help states and districts evaluate which programs improve students’ academic performance and mental health outcomes so they can “phase out less effective programming,” he said.

But Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a think tank that has tracked districts’ responses to the pandemic, said the additional funding seems small compared to the need to better understand what works. And it comes when the Institute for Education Sciences, the department’s research arm, already doesn’t have enough funding to meet the demand. 

“It feels a bit like a ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ moment for the feds,” she said. “Our students are facing extraordinary needs. Now is the time for a serious and strategic commitment of resources from the federal government for research and development.” 

The Center’s research also suggests districts are doing less this year, not more. Its showed a drop in districts planning summer programming, except for students with disabilities. And in June, the Afterschool Alliance released showing that just one in five afterschool providers has received relief funds.

Last summer, many districts also struggled to hire enough staff to meet the demand, despite pay incentives. And the Afterschool Alliance survey showed two-thirds of program leaders were worried they wouldn’t have enough staff this year. 

Even when districts plan to serve students with disabilities, they often end up cutting back. A Buffalo, New York-area district reduced for special education students because of staff shortages, and the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland shifted its program for about 175 students because of a lack of staff.

Some parents also question whether districts have done enough outside of the school year to move students back up to grade level. Alicia Aleman, who has three children in California’s Fresno Unified School District, enrolled them in last year’s summer program.

“They offer programs for math or science, but they’re only making cookies. They’re watching movies,” she said, adding that low-income families don’t have choices because they are working and “need someone to take care of the kids during the summer.” 

This year, she tried to sign up for a program through the city, but “all the spots are taken by the time the flyers go to the community.”

Fresno Unified, however, has significantly expanded summer programs with $40 million in state funding, boosting enrollment from about 4,000 at a limited number of sites last year to roughly 15,000 this year at every elementary school and middle school. The district is contracting with a range of nonprofit organizations and colleges to offer sports and arts camps, with tutoring built in. 

The funding “allows us to remove historical barriers [like] making kids get on the bus and go across town,” said Jeremy Ward, the district’s assistant superintendent for college and career readiness. “My biggest fear is that we consider this work as a flash in the pan — we influse money for a year or two and then we pull back.”

Donning child-sized toques — the tall, white, pleated hats worn by chefs — Winter, 9, DeVonte, 8, and Stormy, 7, took charge of the kitchen, perfecting their knife skills by slicing bell peppers and stirring the roux until it reached a golden brown.

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By the end of the course, they’d made traditional Southern greens, black-eyed peas, smothered chicken and other dishes that trace back to African culture. “They’re already talking about making the cornbread for Thanksgiving,” said Foster.

The culinary-themed Black history lesson, called Soul Food Summer Camp, was a local twist on one of the popular courses available from Reconstruction — an online enrichment platform celebrating Black Americans’ contributions and heritage.

In a year when classroom discussions about race and discrimination have bitterly divided school boards and statehouses, topics such as the essential role of corn in the diet of Black slaves may seem conspicuously noncontroversial. But fostering Black children’s “positive identity development” in the way Hebrew and Chinese schools do for children in other communities is exactly what Kaya Henderson had in mind when she launched Reconstruction a year ago. As former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools, she wants to counter a narrative that Black families don’t value education.

Roughly 15,000 students are expected to sign up this fall for Reconstruction, a for-profit company that delivers live enrichment classes on Black history and culture over Zoom to students across the country. Black parents browsing its offerings find courses “unapologetically” designed for them and their children. “Shorties” (4- to 11-year-olds), “Youngins” (12- to 14-year-olds) and “Gen Z” youth cover Black entrepreneurship and cultural knowledge. Students can design apps for nonprofits working to support the Black community or study speeches and sermons of famous Black orators. Parents began asking for their own courses, so there’s a Read and Rap Book Club for “grown folks.”

Henderson’s decision to market directly to families and nonprofit organizations has allowed Reconstruction to bypass school district politics.

“I didn’t want to be at the whim of state legislators,” said Henderson, who credits the program’s more celebratory approach to Black history for keeping it under the radar. “We’re not out here talking about white people being awful. We’re giving young people positive examples, and that keeps us a little bit out of the fray.”

But that doesn’t mean the curriculum ignores America’s painful racial history. For example, several courses include lessons on the once-thriving commercial district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as Black Wall Street, and the 1921 massacre in which a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses there.

‘A place of belonging’

The mission to give students a more comprehensive story begins with the program’s name: Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War when Confederate states rejoined the Union and former slaves got their first taste of freedom. It’s “a lesser known part of American history when African Americans were thriving politically, economically, educationally,” Henderson said. “We wanted to challenge folks who don’t know that part of our history to explore it. And we wanted to remind our students that they come from a rich tradition of Black excellence in America that they have a responsibility to uphold.”

A former Teach for America executive director in D.C., Henderson served under former Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who was for closing low-performing schools and instituting a tough teacher evaluation system. With mayoral control of schools, Henderson continued those reforms during her some critics argued her strategies didn’t do enough to close racial achievement gaps. after she resigned, the city’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability her for granting the requests of colleagues to place their children in preferred schools rather than submitting them to the district’s competitive lottery system.

When it came to designing Reconstruction, her experience helming the 51,000 student district was instructional. It helped fuel a desire to sidestep a K-12 bureaucracy that hasn’t always done right by African-Americans.

Black students, she said, often have negative experiences in school, and Henderson wanted Reconstruction to be “a place of belonging, joy and love.” She also didn’t want to conform to 50 different sets of state standards — particularly in light of on lessons or materials that could make students feel uncomfortable or guilty because of their race or gender. Reconstruction launched about five months before states began considering legislation to outlaw so-called critical race theory — a loose umbrella of topics from Black history to culturally responsive teaching.

Reconstruction courses have no more than 10 students, and there aren’t any end-of-course tests. That doesn’t mean the lessons go easy on academics, Henderson said. The reading and math courses can add up to a full year’s curriculum.

“To me, the rigor is paramount, but I’m not trying to replace school,” said Henderson.

Reconstruction’s business model also gives Henderson control over who she hires as “reconstructors”— the team of young educators who teach the courses.

“There have been enough hot mic episodes over the years to show that everyone who’s teaching children doesn’t always believe in Black children,” Henderson said.

In March, for instance, a resigned after making comments on a Zoom call about Black parents teaching their children to make excuses for their behavior. A mother recorded the teacher, who was apparently unaware the call was ongoing.

Henderson and co-founder Roland Fryer, a Harvard economics professor, initially discussed whether Reconstruction should be a school curriculum or offered outside the traditional system. Fryer, Henderson said, leaned toward integrating the concept into schools.

“I don’t want [children] to be taught that there’s slavery, Jim Crow and then you. I want for the history to be full and for them to be empowered,” Fryer said during a recent two-part interview on the Ian Rowe, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Those episodes aired the same week that Fryer at Harvard after completing a two-year probation and training on “appropriate boundaries.” In 2019, the university placed him on administrative leave after an investigation showed he had violated sexual harassment policies and engaged in “unwelcome” conduct, such as talking about sex and telling sexual jokes in the Education Innovation Lab he ran. He denied accusations of harassment and retaliation, but later apologized in into whether Fryer retaliated against an accuser closed when a female employee withdrew her complaint.

The university shut down the lab, where Fryer — who, at 30, became the youngest Black professor to earn tenure at Harvard — led notable research on the effectiveness of charter schools and racial disparities in education and policing.

As he faced disciplinary action at Harvard, Fryer co-founded Equal Opportunity Ventures in 2019 to support Reconstruction and other startups that focus on closing racial disparities and expanding economic opportunity. He serves as chair of Reconstruction’s board of directors, but Henderson said he is not involved in daily operations. She added that she’s never received any questions or concerns from parents or organizations about his involvement.

In an email to ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ, Fryer declined to comment on the probation or his work developing Reconstruction during that time. But he said, “I am delighted to be back teaching at Harvard, and currently have a class of nearly 200 students eager to learn about how companies like Reconstruction can both change the world around us and be a sustainable business.”

‘Culturally relevant perspectives’

That business model is primarily aimed at parents, who pay $100 for each 10-session course. But nonprofits, such as the Grable Foundation in Pittsburgh, are making the program available to students for free.

The traditional education system has also taken notice.

In the Baltimore City Public Schools last year, 140 students from 17 schools took an afterschool program featuring Reconstruction’s course on the movement of Africans into the Americas and the Caribbean during the slave trade.

David Anderson, a junior in an advanced STEM program at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, said he learned about Manhattan’s Seneca Village, a pre-Civil War African American settlement that got pushed out to develop Central Park. The life of abolitionist Sojourner Truth also stuck with him.

“She was more under the radar than Harriet Tubman, but her job was just as important,” Anderson said.

David’s mother, Annette Campbell Anderson, an educator and professor at Johns Hopkins University, was initially skeptical about the program, having been underwhelmed by the district’s previous afterschool offerings. But she was impressed by her son’s commitment to the course.

“I found myself needing to change our family dinner schedule on Tuesdays when he had class because he refused to leave the sessions early,” she said. “And if I served dinner early, he raced upstairs to be on time — for a Zoom session.”

Reconstruction has won praise from those on opposite sides of the debate over critical race theory.

Sharif El-Mekki, CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, said it’s important for Black children to have a space designed for them, even if it’s virtual.

“Out-of-school-time has always been one of the most-effective and least invested-in levers for achievement for Black children,” said El-Mekki, whose daughters, Zaynab and Zakiyyah, participated in Reconstruction’s pilot and then took the cooking class.

The program provides Black children with a “holistic, centering and respectful curriculum,” he said, adding that students who participate in the program could become “powerful advocates” for more culturally responsive teaching in their own schools.

Like other Black educators, El-Mekki has said the debates over critical race theory misrepresent what schools actually teach students but also ignore the persistent educational inequalities affecting Black and Hispanic students.

At a time when some states, such as California, Connecticut and , are expanding ethnic studies in the curriculum, he thinks Reconstruction is one way to re-engage Black students and others “that have been perpetually let down by the educational ecosystem.”

‘All kids of all races’

At the National Charter School Conference in June, El-Mekki and Rowe, from the American Enterprise Institute, strongly disagreed about the furor over critical race theory, but joined in their praise for Henderson’s program.

In a “shout-out” for Reconstruction, Rowe said: “I think it’s good that we’re having more discussions about what should be the complete [story] — warts and all, oppression and resilience — that we’re teaching all kids of all races about what has transpired with African Americans in the United States.”

The process isn’t always easy. White parents are among Reconstruction’s customers, Henderson said, but some have requested that their child not be the only non-Black student in a class. Others have even asked for all-white classes, a request that would have raised the spectre of segregation in the public school world she left behind.

Those requests don’t bother her.

Though there hasn’t yet been enough demand for an all-white class, Henderson said she’d “absolutely consider it.” Some parents tell her their kids don’t have a lot of experience interacting with Black children and worry they might say the wrong thing. The goal, she said, is to get the message out to as wide an audience as possible.

“This stuff is hard and we’re all going to make mistakes,” she said. “We are designed for and by African Americans, but we need everyone to learn this history.”

Lead Image: Winter Herbert (L-R), Stormy Foster and DeVonte Foster prepare a meal as part of Soul Food Summer Camp, a week-long virtual cooking course for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, students participating in Reconstruction. (Catapult Greater Pittsburgh)

From 2014 to early 2020, just before the pandemic, the U.S. saw a 1.3 million-student drop in afterschool STEM participation, falling from 7 million learners to 5.7 million, according to the paper, which was published by the nonprofit organization Afterschool Alliance.

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Those drops were starkest among poorer students, who were already underrepresented in STEM fields. In that timespan, the number of young people from low-income households participating in afterschool programs, STEM or otherwise, fell from 4.6 million to 2.7 million — meaning 79 percent of afterschool attrition came from less wealthy families despite such students making up only 38 percent of all participants in 2020.

“We left those students behind,” said Nikole Collins-Puri, CEO of the California-based nonprofit Techbridge Girls.

Simultaneously, however, the share of afterschool programs offering STEM opportunities grew. Nearly 3 in 4 young people learning outside of school hours have science and technology programming available to them. That’s up four percentage points from 69 percent in 2014.

“The inequities are troubling and must not continue,” said Jodi Grant, Afterschool Alliance’s executive director, in a press release. “We need to increase access to afterschool overall, because even though parents report a greater percentage of programs are providing STEM, fewer children are in afterschool programs today than in years past.”

Data for the report come from a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of U.S. families, including a total of more than 31,000 phone interviews, making the report the most comprehensive look at out-of-school learning to date.

The interviews revealed that, even amid drops in afterschool program participation, more parents than ever before would like to see their children get involved in such opportunities. For every child in an out-of-school learning program, another three are waiting to get in, according to the study. The parents of some 24.6 million students said they would enroll their child in afterschool programming if the offerings were readily available to them.

Cost and transportation appear to pose key barriers. Fifty-seven percent of parents said afterschool opportunities were too expensive and 53 percent said they weren’t sure how their kids would get to and from activities. STEM programs may be particularly pricey, with a $107 mean weekly reported price, compared to $74 per week for other offerings.

Despite barriers, however, science and math opportunities are an increasing priority for parents. Some 72 percent of families, up from 53 percent in 2014, told researchers that STEM and computer science learning were important factors in their selection of afterschool and summer programs. Rates were especially high among Black, Hispanic and Asian families.

STEM-related occupations tend to be more lucrative than non-STEM fields, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the former will grow by 8 percent in the next decade, while the latter will only grow 3.4 percent. STEM fields, however, tend to employ a more white and more male workforce than the general population.

Collins-Puri’s organization, Techbridge Girls, works to counter that trend by providing STEM learning opportunities to low-income girls of color and gender-expansive individuals.

Widening access to STEM programs, she said in a briefing held on the Afterschool Alliance report, means eliminating potential barriers to participation for underrepresented groups. For example, young women more so than young men tend to shoulder caregiving responsibilities, the CEO pointed out — which for many families only increased during the pandemic.

“When girls have the responsibility to take care of their younger sibling, to take care of their elderly family members, or even take on some of the economic responsibilities to support the household, that is a direct impact to their participation in afterschool programming,” said Collins-Puri.

“You have to make your afterschool programming flexible,” she continued. Adults should encourage students to come to activities, regardless of their home responsibilities, by telling them, “Make sure you bring your younger sibling so they can be part of the learning experience,” the Oakland afterschool leader advised.

Programs may soon have additional resources at their disposal, Grant, of the Afterschool Alliance, pointed out thanks to funds from the American Rescue Plan, which could allow some organizations to subsidize program costs, bolster transportation options or make other adjustments to meet families’ needs.

Even amid persistent disparities in access to afterschool programming, gaps have never been due to any deficiencies among individuals who belong to underrepresented groups, Collins-Puri reminded viewers.

“Our girls lack nothing. Our girls are capable. They’re ready and they’re willing to be in the STEM revolution.”

For 60 seconds, 19 middle and early high school students remained relatively silent apart from the crinkling of popsicle wrappers. They awaited the verdict of a peer’s model rocket after a failed launch at Danehy Park just outside of Boston.

As the minute ended and it was safe to inspect the engine and try anew, the culprit was revealed — a finicky starter and an igniter, which had likely slipped off in the summer wind.

Cheers and chatter quickly resumed for the participants of a free Summer Rocketry Program hosted by the Science Club for Girls, a Boston-area nonprofit that offers STEM learning opportunities year-round for K-8 girls, nonbinary youth, and those that identify with girlhood. For over 25 years, their focus has been fostering excitement and confidence for communities underrepresented in STEM fields by income, race, or first-generation college-bound status.

In a hybrid learning model, summer students explored the science behind model rockets, aspects of living in space and astronaut training, and participated in a STEM career panel over Zoom, ultimately coming together on July 16 for the in-person rocket launch. The two-week program is sponsored by the and .

Science Club for Girls hosted one in-person launch in 2020, per pandemic safety regulations to limit the group, and this summer expanded it to two longer in-person launching sessions in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Club is hosting two groups in this year’s Rocketry Camp, with 19 students in July and 23 in August, and — reflecting an uptick in interest — 17 students on a waitlist.

“It’s all inquiry-based learning, hands-on through doing, where everything’s an activity. The girls are engaging with materials and actually learning from what they do,” said Hannah Weinstock, program manager for the Club and a former middle school STEM teacher in Chelsea, just northeast of Boston.

Executive Director Dr. Bonnie Bertolaet says that while the organization focuses on STEM content delivery, they are attune to the “context of the whole child and social-emotional learning, the relationships, the mentors — that kind of support makes children more open to learning and feel like they’re in a trusting environment where they can make mistakes and ask questions.”

Particularly as students gear up to return to school after a turbulent hybrid or fully remote year, Massachusetts education leaders and Gov. Charlie Baker are stressing the impact that opportunities to be curious and learn from each other in-person may have for young children this summer. In April, the to address the pandemic’s negative impact on learning.

While the Club did not receive that funding specifically, Bertolaet said, “Our entire organization, and all of our programs, have been squarely centered around offsetting the loss of learning.”

The program’s virtual aspect “has allowed students from the broader community to join,” Weinstock said, with campers hailing from all over eastern Massachusetts, including Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, Revere, Lexington, Sudbury and Melrose.

Sonali Fiorillo, a rising junior at Wellesley High School and mentor for younger youth in the program, joined the Club’s in-person launch this year with her rockets from 2020 and 2021 in-hand. Her interests are aerospace engineering, astronomy, education and sustainability.

“One of my favorite things about rockets in real life right now is that I’ve been seeing has been doing some launches and been re-landing the boosters back on the ground,” Fiorillo said. “I know that rocketry has a negative impact on the environment with all of the fuel emissions and also the trash that we usually leave in the ocean, or in space just as , which can be harmful to satellites and other objects orbiting the earth.”

This summer provides plenty of opportunity to witness rockets hurtling toward space, with billionaires . SpaceX, founded and run by billionaire Elon Musk, is also .

The Club’s model rockets, barring any launch-related damage, can and are reused. After July’s group successfully launched their rockets and marked landings on the field, students offered up their models to Weinstock and Evelyn Gonzalez, the Club’s program recruitment manager, giving them a chance to see the science in action.

Rashida Santos, mother to a rising Boston Public Schools 6th-grader and Club camper, watched as one rocket made its descent above parents’ heads, ultimately touching down in a nearby baseball field. The summer program came recommended from her daughter’s school in a larger packet of available programs, and one of her daughter’s teachers pointed out this group specifically.

“I’m a total science geek and want all my children to be, too,” Santos said.

Lucy Stone Roxbury Prep sent an email to Tracie Laroche, another mother, with the Science Club for Girls’s information during last school year. Her daughter got involved with after-school and weekend programming in the fall of 2020. “She’s kind of my science nerd, she likes it all,” Laroche says.

While all of the youth express a growing interest in STEM fields, some participate and come back as mentors for the social-emotional engagement.

“I really like the community — I have so much in common with these girls,” said Tamar Etienne, a teacher/mentor for this summer’s program and rising 10th-grader at Cambridge’s Prospect Hill Academy Charter School. “We all like science obviously, and are super positive, sweet, and kind.”

Given that the program is almost completely virtual and students don’t attend the same schools, the Science Club for Girls is keen on fostering relationships in remote programming. Gonzalez, the recruitment manager, highlights that the moments where they bonded over favorite TV shows and musical instruments were critical to the July launch’s success.

“Being out here in person, it really reflects how in Zoom they were able to connect,” Gonzalez said.

The Club also helped their campers’ families, supporting them with digital literacy, computer access and staying connected to their children’s schools.

“We’re going to the tech help desks at schools for our families, and by helping them register for our programs, that helps get those families back engaged with the public schools for remote learning,” said Bertolaet.

In the fall, the Science Club for Girls will continue hybrid instruction for about 100 in-person and 250-plus virtual students, citing parent demand for both opportunities. Youth will turn their focus from space matter to human matter, learning a different bodily system each week. In the final eighth week, they’ll diagnose a model patient.

The organization has plans to expand learning opportunities throughout Massachusetts, at a time when common narratives push that .

On launch day, Bertolaet noticed students “were so excited to meet each other, even girls who had been off camera the whole time,” she said. “There was no self consciousness, which is great. I mean this is about being yourself, feeling comfortable, feeling safe and exploring.”