Can Afterschool with a Foundation in SEL Help Disrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline?

By Sam Piha

In a recent Forum For Thought on the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) website, AYPF Policy and Research Intern, Olivia Thomas, raised the concern about the school-to-prison pipeline and cited afterschool as a contributing solution. (See original post here.)

She began by sharing a number of facts: 

Olivia Thomas

• “In the 2009-2010 school year, 96,000 students were arrested at their schools, and an additional 242,000 were referred to law enforcement by a school administrator.
• Black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent of those students.
• LGBTQ students and disabled students are also disproportionately punished under punitive policies as compared to their peers.
• Black youth in particular make up about 16% of students in public schools, but approximately 40% of the students being arrested and committed to the juvenile justice system. This translates to black students being more than four times as likely as their white peers to be arrested at school despite the fact that both groups commit disciplinary offenses at similar rates.”

http://partnerforchildren.org/selinelp/

She then made a case why afterschool can be part of the solution: 

• "Social and emotional learning (SEL) has long been a central point of afterschool programming. In learning skills such as self-awareness and responsible decision making, youth can learn to better manage their emotions and experiences, and navigate potentially hostile classroom environments in a way that is considered more acceptable by school administrators.

http://partnerforchildren.org/selinelp/

• Afterschool and OST programs provide a safe, supportive place for young people to spend their time. The activities offered by specific programs provide a positive focus for their energy and keep them engaged between the critical hours of 3:00-7:00 pm – the time frame in which juveniles are most frequently victims or perpetrators of violent crimes. 

• Another longtime focus of afterschool has been on culturally relevant teaching. This practice ensures that different narratives and cultures are represented truthfully and equitably in lessons and activities. As a result, students from disadvantaged backgrounds feel seen and heard in their learning experience, and can play an active, productive role in it.

http://partnerforchildren.org/selinelp/

• Afterschool can connect students to various opportunities and resources that allow them to explore postsecondary career and education options that they would not have access to otherwise. Career exploration, college visits, and internships are the types of experiences that can help keep students engaged in their learning by challenging and motivating them to think about their future path.

• Wraparound services exist to holistically serve the needs of youth. Afterschool programs can integrate these services to further provide students with the tools and support they need, from access to healthy food to connections to social services. Wraparound supports in OST settings can ensure young people have the resources and support they need so they can better function and thrive in a school environment.” 

To learn more about the school-to-prison pipeline, check out these two videos: 

Advocacy in the Era of Trump, Part 2

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Throughout its history, afterschool has always had to promote its value and identity around the issues of the day. With each change in the presidential administration, there are risks and opportunities that we should be aware of, and adjust our advocacy accordingly.

President Trump communicated his ideas using very specific language during his campaign and transition. Is there anything we can learn about how best to advocate for afterschool funding? In this new era of Trump, we asked Betsy Brand, Executive Director of the American Youth Policy Forum, and Jodi Grant, Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance, about this. Below is part 2 of their responses. See part 1 here.

Q: President Trump also talks a lot about jobs. Do you think it will be important to stress "workforce development" and "workforce skills" that are part of afterschool?

Betsy Brand, AYPF

Betsy Brand: Afterschool programs are natural venues for helping older youth develop knowledge, skills, and abilities that lead to success in the workplace, life, and community. Skills like teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking are all highly valued by employers. Afterschool and summer school programs can help develop those skills. We should not be shy in telling that story.

Jodi Grant,
Afterschool Alliance

Jodi Grant: Absolutely. Many of the character education, social emotional learning and youth development skills that afterschool programs focus on are just as essential to workforce preparation. Making that connection for people — framing those skills and this learning as workforce development — makes a lot of sense. The same is true for all the opportunities provided to our youth to learn about, intern, apprentice in the community, and even work as part of their afterschool programs. That’s why the National Afterschool Summit, to be held at the University of Southern California on April 5th, will focus on making sure our students are ready to work. 

Photo Credit: Youth Institute, Long Beach 

Q: The "red" rural counties were strong supporters of President Trump. Do you think that promoting access to afterschool in rural areas is important, given the new political climate? 

Betsy Brand: Promoting access to high quality afterschool in rural communities is not a red or blue issue – it’s an issue of fairness and accessibility. The challenge is that many rural communities don’t have lots of afterschool providers like suburbs and cities, so it is hard to provide engaging, high quality afterschool programs. State afterschool, education, and youth leaders can work with rural communities to help develop their capacity to better serve youth and ensure they have opportunities for meaningful participation in the non-school hours.

Photo Credit: Brilliant Maps

Jodi Grant: Promoting access to rural areas has always been vital and, in fact, the Afterschool Alliance has issued several reports, including one just last year, America After 3PM Special Report: The Growing Importance of Afterschool in Rural Communities, highlighting the unique challenges students and parents in rural America face in their pursuit of high quality afterschool programs.  We hope that the President and Secretary DeVos will embrace afterschool as a way to enhance education in rural America.  

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URGENT UPDATE FROM THE AFTERSCHOOL ALLIANCE
"President Trump has just unveiled his budget priorities—and his plan singles out afterschool funding for elimination." To learn more, click here. 


LIAS will also be posting a blog on these developments.

Advocacy in the Era of Trump, Part 1

By Sam Piha

Sam  Piha

Throughout its history, afterschool has always had to promote its value and identity around the issues of the day. With each change in the Presidential administration, there are risks and opportunities that we should be aware of, and adjust our advocacy accordingly.

President Trump communicated his ideas using very specific language during his campaign and transition. Is there anything we can learn about how best to advocate for afterschool funding? In this new era of Trump, we asked Betsy Brand, Executive Director of the American Youth Policy Forum, and Jodi Grant, Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance, about this. Below is part 1 of their responses. 

Q: The new President appears to have a high regard for law enforcement. Law enforcement officials were strong advocates at the federal and state level for afterschool. Do you envision that we will again engage law enforcement organizations in the effort to preserve the federal 21st CCLC funding?

Betsy Brand, AYPF

Betsy Brand: As the new Administration focuses on improving safety in our communities, it seems a natural step to talk about how afterschool programs involve youth in positive and engaging activities, in the non-school hours. Law enforcement can be an important advocate for 21st CCLC funding and effective partners that bring valuable skills and resources to the table, not just in this political climate but anytime.

Jodi Grant,
Afterschool Alliance

Jodi Grant: Law enforcement officials have been strong partners for afterschool all along because they recognize how important it is for youth to engage constructively with their peers and with adults. Across the country a lot of afterschool programs have strong relationships with law enforcement agencies, ranging from Police Athletic League programs to partnerships with local police. One great thing about bringing police officers into programs, often as volunteers, is that it fosters powerful personal relationships that can not only change lives, but change the discourse between police, youth and parents. It’s an example of community policing at its best. 

For more than a year the Afterschool Alliance’s blog has been featuring stories of afterschool programs working with local law enforcement. (The most recent story can be found here.) We value the partnerships not just because of the terrific work that police are doing with kids in afterschool programs, but because it’s so important for the public to understand the reach of afterschool programs. The messenger can be as important as the message, and law enforcement voices are going to be more essential than ever in helping us preserve federal afterschool funding.  

Photo Credit: http://www.stlasap.org/

Q: President Trump talks a lot about crime, safety, and drug abuse. Do you predict that we will need to return to a "deficit" or prevention model to capture his attention to preserve afterschool funding?

Betsy Brand: We should not return to a deficit model, but rather focus on the benefits of afterschool in terms of helping young people find engaging, satisfying, and meaningful activities in which they can participate during the non-school hours and that help them develop skills that lead to success. The deficit model language should be retired once and for all.

Jodi Grant: Afterschool programs are effective and popular because they keep kids safe, help working parents and inspire students to learn. While today, a lot of policymakers think about afterschool in terms of the third prong of that message, it was actually the first two prongs that generated the political will to create a federal funding stream for afterschool. Students spend 80 percent of their waking hours outside school and they are always learning – every minute. So the question is: What will we teach them? They can learn skills at an afterschool program that will help them succeed in school, at work and in life or, if we leave them unsupervised, they can engage in activities that are inappropriate, dangerous or even illegal, and learn a very different set of lessons. As the President focuses on crime, drug abuse and other ills in our society, it is important for us to highlight the impact that afterschool has in teaching the right lessons and in preventing inappropriate behavior in our students.  

From a communications standpoint, if highlighting negative consequences can help us build support to provide resources to the 11.3 million children who go home alone each day and are unsupervised when they get there, then it is worth making that argument. 

Once we have our students in a safe place, we can do so much more to inspire them to get out of their comfort zones and achieve dreams that might not have been possible before. 

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URGENT UPDATE FROM THE AFTERSCHOOL ALLIANCE
"President Trump has just unveiled his budget priorities—and his plan singles out afterschool funding for elimination." To learn more, click here. 

LIAS will also be posting a blog on these developments.

President Trump and Afterschool

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Over the last three presidential administrations, we have enjoyed federal investments in 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC). However, we know that public support and investments come with a “shelf life”. It is important that we advocate for the continued federal investment in afterschool programs. 

With the new presidential administration and congress, there are both threats and opportunities we should be aware of. Below, we reached out to Betsy Brand, Executive Director of the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) and Gina Warner, Executive Director of the National AfterSchool Association (NAA) to share their thoughts on this. In future blog posts, we will keep our readers informed including information from the Afterschool Alliance and the Partnership for Children and Youth. 

Betsy Brand,
AYPF

Q: What can we expect from the new presidential administration around afterschool/expanded learning programs? 
A: I think it’s unlikely that there will be much attention focused on afterschool/expanded learning with this Administration, unless it becomes linked to an agenda on expanding child care or as a way to reduce teen delinquency. 

There is a chance that afterschool could play a role in the school choice debates by allowing parents the freedom to select programs that meet the needs of their children, but I think that’s somewhat unlikely, too. The biggest challenge for discretionary programs will be the budget and appropriations. If this Administration increases spending for infrastructure, defense, and due to health care changes, there will be very little money for domestic discretionary programs like 21st CCLC. I believe we are going to see major appropriations battles over the next few years with regard to Labor-HHS-Ed and other domestic programs.

Q: What should we be prepared to do to ensure ongoing support for afterschool/expanded learning?
A: It’s time to make sure that advocates are busy contacting their Senators and Representatives. They are the ones that will have to hold the line on cuts to 21st CCLC and other programs that support afterschool and expanded learning. The positive thing is that afterschool already deserves very wide and bi-partisan support in Congress. We need to build on that and ensure that new members and new staff continue to hear how important afterschool is from their constituents – over and over again.

Photo Credit: saveafterschool.com

Ms. Warner focused her thoughts on the possible opportunities that come with the new President. Below are her thoughts.

Gina Warner,
NAA

Q: In looking ahead to a new presidential administration, are there any opportunities that we should be aware of and how can the afterschool movement embrace these opportunities? 
A: I spent a large portion of my career working in New Orleans, Louisiana, the city that leads the nation with the largest percentage of students enrolled in public charter schools. As the leader of the city's afterschool intermediary for many years, I have a lot of experience building positive partnerships between afterschool providers and school leaders. Those experiences give me hope that afterschool can—and will—play a meaningful role in the growth of school choice.

Here are four things I know:

1. Afterschool is choice.
Inherent in many of the discussions about school choice is the belief that parents and children should have the ability to choose an educational environment that best meets their needs. Every day, 10.2 million children choose to participate in afterschool programs that enhance their academic, social, emotional and physical development. We need to embrace this message and begin to view it as central to our mission of growing afterschool investment.

2. Strong school leaders value afterschool.
High-quality afterschool programs positively impact school attendance, behavior and coursework. Strong school leaders see a high-quality afterschool program as an integral part of delivering successful outcomes for their students.

3. Strong afterschool programs drive student enrollment.
In cities like New Orleans and Washington, D.C.—where there is a competitive marketplace of educational options for families—those schools offering afterschool programs are viewed much more favorably by families and are often the schools with the longest waiting lists for admission.

4. Both in school and out of school, quality matters.
Just creating more choices is not sufficient to ensure the outcomes we want and need for all of our children. We must invest in the people that do this work, so they can continue to deliver high-quality learning and enrichment experiences for all children before, during and after the school day.

I will continue to advocate for increased investment in afterschool, because I believe in the positive benefits of strong afterschool programs for children, families and communities. Investments in school choice cannot come at the expense of investments in creating greater access to high-quality afterschool programs. I am hopeful that by working together—with a shared vision of success for all—afterschool can and will be a part of a growing school choice landscape.

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Betsy Brand has served as the Executive Director of AYPF since 2004, and she served as Co-Director of the organization since 1998. Betsy has spent her career working on education, workforce, and youth policy and specializes in comprehensive approaches to helping young people be prepared for today’s careers, lifelong learning, and civic engagement.

Gina Warner was named President and CEO of the National AfterSchool Association in June 2012. NAA - the voice of the afterschool profession – has over 20,000 members across the country and hosts the most comprehensive program of professional development opportunities for afterschool professionals anywhere in the United States.