A national survey says Louisiana has a high demand for quality afterschool and summer programs, but much of it remains unmet.
As The Town-Talk of Alexandria reports, results from Afterschool Alliance’s 2014 survey “America after 3 p.m.” show Louisiana’s afterschool program participation rate is below the national average of 33%.
In 2014, 15% of Louisiana’s children participated in an afterschool program, compared to 13% in 2009 and equal to 2004’s figure. But 39% of Louisiana parents say they would enroll their children in a program if one were available, according to the study.
“The situation in Louisiana and across the country is that families are looking for quality programs and not finding them,” says Jen Rinehart, vice president of research and policy for Afterschool Alliance.
And demand is growing, she says. Britt says quality programs augment student learning, supplementing what schools already are doing by extending the day during the school year or continuing through the summer. And that requires community support.
“The community has got to step up and help,” Britt says. “There’s more the community can do to align learning with what schools already are doing and have a big impact on student learning.”
The survey also shows the average time spent in afterschool programs in Louisiana is seven hours and four days a week—figures that approach the national averages. But the state figures represent a drop from 10 hours per week in 2009.
The “America after 3 p.m.” study comes out every five years and began in 2004. The survey reaches 30,000 households, 13,000 of which are in-depth and about 200 in Louisiana, Rinehart says.
“What we see in Louisiana is (that) the demand far exceeds the supply of summer programs,” she says. “So the big use of the data would be to help the folks at the state level to talk about the need for more involvement.”
