Benefits of Afterschool

Afterschool Enhances Academic Success

A quality afterschool program is more than babysitting and homework help. A good program addresses the entire child - academic, social, physical and creative. Compared to unsupervised children, students who regularly attend quality afterschool programs:

• Achieve higher scores on standardized testing
• Have improved school attendance and higher graduation rates
• Learn to respect other cultural backgrounds and develop better conflict resolution and social skills

Afterschool Keeps Kids Safe

Youth who do not participate in afterschool programs:

• Are nearly three times more likely to skip school
• Are three times more likely to use marijuana or other drugs
• Are more likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and engage in sexual activity

Afterschool Helps Employers

Afterschool programs help local employers by:

• Creating a stronger workforce-ready population
• Allowing working parents to remain focused on their jobs in the afternoon knowing that their children are safe and supervised. Stress and absenteeism caused by issues related to afterschool care costs employers between $500 and $2,000 per employee annually.

Afterschool is Cost Effective

The average cost to provide afterschool programming to one student from grades 1 through 9 is $10,038. Compare that to the lifetime costs of:

• A high school dropout: $450,000 - $750,000
• A heavy drug user: $483,000 - $1,260,000
• A career criminal: $1.5 million - $1.8 million

Therefore, every dollar invested in high quality afterschool programs saves taxpayers roughly $8 to $12 in future social and welfare expenditures!