This commentary is by Mandy Chesley-Park, director of the Mount Abraham Unified School District’s expanded learning program.
The coronavirus pandemic has upended life for Vermonters. Despite our best efforts, the compounding effects of lost instructional time, social isolation, hunger and mental health challenges threaten to derail our children’s academic progress and social-emotional development.
With this upon us and the next school year ahead, we cannot and should not expect our school day staff alone to meet the needs of our students and families. After-school and summer learning programs are critical partners for schools.
For example, over the last year, programs like mine, the Mount Abraham Unified School District’s expanded learning program, have swiftly transformed their operations, keeping their doors open as virtual learning hubs to give kids a safe place to learn during the school day while their parents were working. Many of the parents who enrolled their children are essential workers at grocery stores, prison facilities, health care centers and gas stations. And many students needed help with virtual learning.
Our programs innovated to employ nurses, obtain personal protective equipment, implement mask mandates, offer flexible family-friendly programming, and more. At Mount Abraham’s expanded learning program, our school district’s educators and staff worked at the hub to help kids with their schoolwork, and the hub operated flexibly to accommodate the schools’ remote and hybrid schedules as the pandemic evolved, keeping our doors open as long as 10 hours each day. Collaboration among schools, our staff, volunteers, and community partners ensured meals were served, and kids continued to enjoy programs like music, robotics, karaoke and snorkeling and even take field trips.
The Mount Abraham expanded learning program now serves families in five towns and is running a middle school program this summer — growth driven by the demand among families.
Demand is so high because after-school and summer programs work.
Decades of research show that kids who attend after-school and summer programs build social skills and healthy relationships, improve their academic performance, gain workforce skills and are more likely to graduate. Our families rely on these programs — 81% of Vermont parents say after-school helps working parents keep their jobs.
But too many kids are missing out. Before the pandemic, more than 26,000 Vermont children were waiting for an after-school program — for every child in our state who’s enrolled, another is waiting to get in.
Without adequate, sustainable public funding for these programs, children from families with low income and from rural parts of the state will continue to be more likely to miss out due to cost, transportation issues and lack of access to programs.
A strong network of visionary leaders across our state is working to close this gap. Gov. Scott committed Covid-19 relief funding and resources to support after-school and summer programs. Those funds helped the Mount Abraham program expand and enabled more than six virtual learning hubs to open and serve students during the last school year.
Gov. Scott also proposed our state offer universal access to after-school, so that every Vermont student will have access to these life-changing programs, free of charge. This is particularly important in underserved and rural areas — and for young people with special needs. Last month, the Vermont Universal Afterschool Task Force, co-chaired by Sen. Andrew Perchlik and Rep. Kelly Pajala, released a report outlining a path forward for the universal after-school proposal.
Critical state agencies — like the Department for Children and Families, the Department of Health, and the Agency of Education — have been working closely with Vermont Afterschool, our statewide after-school network, to ensure programs across Vermont like mine have adequate resources to meet families’ needs this summer and fall.
Sens. Sanders and Leahy and Rep. Welch worked to make the federal Covid-19 relief funding possible, as well as coordinated support for Vermont. And now, through the American Rescue Plan, Vermont’s state and school district leaders have decision-making power over more than $285 million to support students’ academic, social and emotional recovery from the pandemic.
We have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure that young people across our state emerge from this crisis strong, resilient and hopeful. And we know what we need to do — we need to work together, forge bold new partnerships and leave no resource on the table.
Schools and districts must maximize the federal relief funding, including by partnering with community programs, as the legislation recommends. After-school and summer programs must continue to innovate and deliver programs that Vermont families so desperately need. And leaders across our state, including myself, need to keep working together to find solutions and sustainable funding for the essential supports our children need to thrive.