As the end of the school year approaches and families face another pandemic summer, a new survey of afterschool and summer programs brings some encouraging news: Providers are more likely to be open and operating in person this summer and are more optimistic about a return to normal than in previous surveys. However, providers also anticipate…

The Young Olympians Program was developed to further a partnership between a university and the local Boys and Girls Club in central Illinois. The program was developed to improve youth participants' academic efficacy and social and emotional learning, while also engaging them in physical activity. This article shares the project-management stages…

The federal government has a long history of investing in programs for feeding children, starting with federal aid for school lunch programs in the 1930s. Today, federal child nutrition programs support food served to children in schools and a variety of other institutional settings. The child nutrition programs support meals and snacks served to…

What does it take to transform a large, bureaucratic institution with a fractured culture and a compliance orientation into a nurturing, collaborative, vision-directed organization? In 2017, the California Department of Education's Expanded Learning Division (after-school and summer programs) took a radically different approach by cultivating the…

Across the country many schools and communities are trying to create and support efforts to institutionalize partnerships for learning, including those that rethink the use of time across the school day and year, and across the developmental continuum. Referred to by different terms--integrated, expanded, or complementary learning--the concept has…

Many researchers would like to be helpful to out-of-school time programs, and practitioners see a need for good research. Yet communication between researchers and practitioners can be a challenge. In a recent series of Roundtables to discuss program needs and research evaluations held with program practitioners, Child Trends obtained important…

Many out-of-school time programs want to learn more about how the children and youth they serve are faring. Outcome evaluations allow programs to do just that. This brief provides a basic review of outcome evaluations, discusses why they are important and when they are useful, and presents guidelines, strategies, and techniques for their use in…

This Report to Congress is required by Section 658L of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG) as amended. The report provides information about the role of the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) in improving access to high-quality child care in states, territories, and tribes. The data and analysis contained in this report are…

The Employers' Child Care Alliance, a group of major employers in Lee County, Alabama, developed the "Bridges" program, an innovative program for children ages 10-14 during out-of-school time. The program focuses on the growth of the whole child, specifically in areas not traditionally focused on in school, such as creative development, cultural…

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. families are now headed by two working parents or a single working parent. Accompanying the rise in working parents is a growing demand for high-quality supervised care and enrichment activities for children and youth during out-of-school hours. To make sound investment decisions, policymakers, program providers and…

In order to prepare outstanding teachers, it is essential to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to use the theory learned in the college classroom in a "real physical education class." It is difficult to accomplish this when the university has so many physical education teacher education (PETE) majors that they overwhelm a…

This report synthesizes the last 10 years of findings from P/PV's and other researchers' work to address one of the most demanding challenges facing today's after-school programs--how to create and manage programs that stand the best chance of producing specific, policy-relevant outcomes. It examines recruitment strategies that attract young…

Various types of after-school child care programs are discussed, and characteristics of high-quality programs, such as staff requirements, parental involvement, and space needs are identified. Suggestions for administering and financing these programs are included. (PP)

This publication highlights lessons learned by participants at the May 2006 AYPF field trip to Philadelphia about the best practices the city uses to sustain its comprehensive out-of-school time system. In May of 2006, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) led a field trip to Philadelphia, Pa., in an effort to expose Washington, DC policymakers…

Outlines 15 suggestions for preplanning and implementing choir tours. Briefly discusses; booking and travel agencies, options for financing, establishing educational objectives, parental permission forms, chaperons, housing, and performance apparel. Recommends planning a tour at least a year in advance. (MJP)