New Survey Reveals Uncertainty Among Afterschool Program Providers

Source: www.pexels.com

Temescal Associates recently surveyed afterschool leaders on their concerns regarding 2026. The Afterschool Alliance did a similar but much larger survey of afterschool leaders entitled, Uncertain Times for Afterschool Programs. The findings were very similar. Below is a guest blog by Nikki Yamashiro, Vice President, Research at the Afterschool Alliance on the survey’s findings.

Since 2020, the Afterschool Alliance has surveyed afterschool and summer program providers to capture the current state of the afterschool field in order to better understand providers’ offerings and operations, as well as identify the issues that are most pressing.  

What stands out in the most recent survey, conducted October 27 through December 22, 2025, is that concerns about program sustainability and students’ well-being are on the rise, largely reaching the levels of concern we haven’t seen since the early days of the pandemic. A few key points from the brief, “Uncertain times for afterschool programs: Concerns over sustainability, students’ well-being, and federal actions top of mind,” include: 

• Afterschool program providers’ worries about program sustainability are trending upward. Providers concerned about losing funding, permanently closing their program, or laying off or furloughing staff increased by double-digit percentage points from fall 2024, with worries rising for the second consecutive year. For example, 56% of providers were concerned about the loss of funding to their program in the fall of 2023, increasing to 63% in fall 2024, and reaching 77% in the fall of 2025. The intensity of providers’ level of concern has also grown—providers extremely or very concerned about the loss of funding grew from 32% in 2023 to 40% in 2024, and now, more than half of providers (55%) are extremely or very concerned about losing funding.

“When asked which resources would be most helpful to their program right now, the top answer selected by program providers reflects their growing concerns about funding.” – Afterschool Alliance

Source: A World Fit for Kids

• Providers, regardless of where they are located, are concerned about their funding and future.  Nearly 9 in 10 providers (88%) are concerned about their long-term funding and program’s future, including 67% who are extremely or very concerned. At least 5 in 6 providers across community-types and regions are concerned: this includes programs located in rural (89%), suburban (86%), and urban communities (90%), and in the Northeast (87%), Midwest (89%), South (90%), and West (85%).



“Our funding has been getting cut every year. Each year we are making more and more sacrifices to our quality of programming.” – Afterschool Program Leader, SF 

• Concerns for students—in particular about food insecurity, learning loss, and screen time—are high. While students’ mental and emotional health remains the most prominent concern among program providers, worries about students experiencing food insecurity, learning loss, and unproductive screen time harming their well-being saw significant gains from the previous fall 2024 provider survey. 93% of providers are concerned about their students’ mental and emotional health, with 75% extremely or very concerned, similar to fall 2024 (93%), but providers reporting that they are extremely or very concerned about their students experiencing food insecurity grew from 51% to 64%, concerns over learning loss grew from 56% to 62%, and providers extremely or very concerned about unproductive screen time harming their students’ well-being increased from 63% to 71%.
 
• The disruptions and uncertainty at the federal level are having an effect on programs. More than 6 in 10 providers (62%) said that the children and families they served were impacted at least somewhat by the six-week federal government shutdown that lasted from October 1 through November 12, 2025. And most providers (86%) said that if proposed federal education budget cuts are implemented, they are concerned about the impact to their program. Additionally, nearly half of program providers (46%)  reported being impacted by the withholding of federal funds that took place during the summer of 2025.

“On April 3, the Trump Administration released the proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2027. While the budget proposal is a ‘skinny budget’ that does not include all funding details, it does suggest consolidation of federal education funds and elimination of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program, the only federal funding that exclusively supports local, school and community afterschool and summer learning programs.” – Erik Peterson, Afterschool Alliance

Source: Champions

• Programs impacted by federal government actions are more likely to be concerned about sustainability and their students’ well-being. Afterschool program providers who report that the children and families they served were significantly impacted by the government shutdown and those who said that they were affected by the withholding of education funds last summer are more likely than programs overall to express extreme levels of concern about their program sustainability by double-digit percentage point differences. Providers who were significantly affected by the government shutdown are also more likely to be concerned about their students’ well-being, in particular about food insecurity. For example, 83% of programs who were affected a lot by the government shutdown are extremely or very concerned about their students experiencing food insecurity, 19 percentage points higher than programs overall (64%).

“Sustainability of our 21st CCLC programs is a major concern.” – Afterschool Program Leader, Reno, Nevada



In spite of these concerns and challenges afterschool programs face, they continue to provide young people with opportunities for academic enrichment, time to be active and outdoors, and access to healthy snacks and meals, all while helping to build foundational skills such as the ability to work in teams, think critically, and be leaders. Additionally, providers remain optimistic overall about their future; 69% of providers say that they feel optimistic about the future of their afterschool program, an increase from 62% in fall 2024.

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Nikki Yamashiro

Nikki Yamashiro is Vice President, Research at Afterschool Alliance. She joined the Afterschool Alliance in June 2012. In her current role, Nikki coordinates, manages, and advances the Afterschool Alliance’s research efforts, including developing the organization's research goals and agenda and effectively communicating findings on afterschool and summer programs to policy makers, afterschool providers, advocates, and the public. Current major research initiatives that are a part of Nikki's portfolio include America After 3PM, a longitudinal study of how children in America spend their hours after school, and Afterschool in the Time of COVID-19, a multi-wave tracking survey documenting the pandemic's impact on the afterschool field. Prior to joining the Afterschool Alliance, Nikki served in a variety of research capacities, including as Policy Advisor at Third Way, where she handled domestic policy issues such as juvenile justice, and as legislative assistant to former Rep. Hilda L. Solis, where she handled education and youth issues.

The Afterschool Alliance was established in 2000 by a small group of corporate and foundation philanthropies—including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, JCPenney Company, Inc., the Open Society Institute/The After-School Corporation, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and the Creative Artists Agency Foundation—to expand afterschool and summer learning opportunities nationwide. Since our inception, public investment in afterschool programs has doubled. 

Today, the Alliance works with a broad range of organizations and supporters, including policymakers, government agencies, youth, parent and education groups, business and philanthropic leaders, afterschool coalitions and providers at the national, state, and local levels, and leaders representing health and wellness, college and career readiness, social and emotional learning, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning, and more—each with a stake in afterschool.