National survey finds high demand for after school programs, but cost, transportation and other factors prevent access, especially for low-income families. That is why Carver offers free transportation and 70%+ of Carver students are subsidized by our donors.

See the entire transcript here at The Wallace Foundation.

For the past few years, participation in afterschool programs has dropped precipitously. ​Families of 24.6 million children—an ​​increase of 60 percent since 2004—are una​​ble to access a program and many report cost as a barrier, according to a new survey from the Afterschool Alliance.

The study, America After 3pm: Demand Grows, Opportunity Shrinks, identifies trends in afterschool program offerings and shares overall parent perceptions of afterschool programs. With responses from more than 30,000 U.S. families, this survey builds on the household surveys conducted in 2004, 2009 and 2014. While it offers a pre-pandemic snapshot of how children and youth spend their afternoons, it also includes findings from a separate survey of parents conducted in fall 2020, to capture the pandemic’s impact on afterschool. 

The Wallace Blog caught up with Jennifer Rinehart, Senior VP, Strategy & Programs at the Afterschool Alliance, to discuss the implications of the survey and what they might mean for a post-pandemic world. 

This is the fourt​​h edition of America After 3PM. Why did you start collecting these data and what is the value in continuing to do so?

America After 3PM was the first research undertaking at the Afterschool Alliance and continues to be a pillar of our work. In the early 2000​s, we realized very quickly that there wasn’t a data source that provided a comprehensive view of how kids in America spend their afterschool hours, and we set out to remedy that. As a field building, policy and advocacy organization, we recognized that having good research and data would be critical to our success in helping all young people access quality afterschool and summer programs. And we knew it wasn’t enough to have just a national snapshot. We’d need families from every state, families at all income levels and all races and ethnicities, to really tell the story of who has access to afterschool and summer programs, who is missing out, and why. Through the fourth edition of America After 3PM, we surveyed more than 31,000 families to capture this in-depth and detailed portrait of the afterschool hours across the U.S.

Unmet demand for afterschool programs continues to be a major issue, but access and availability of programs is still a concern. Can you talk more about this?

America After 3PM paints a picture of the huge unmet demand for afterschool programs, with the heaviest burdens falling on low-income families and families of color. The families of nearly 25 million children are unable to access a program. That’s more than ever before; for every child in an afterschool program in America, three more are waiting to get in.

More families report that cost and transportation, as well as overall lack of programs, are barriers today than in 2014, and that is especially the case for families with low-income and families of color.