ADDITIONAL LEARNING TIME PAYS OFF FOR STUDENTS
For students to truly succeed, the regular school day isn’t enough — that’s where expanded learning can help.
Communities across the nation have recently focused their efforts on helping students recover after the pandemic caused historic learning loss and worsened disparities in education that existed long before schools were shut down.
In California, we’re fortunate Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators have kept in mind one important statistic that often goes unmentioned when we’re talking about student outcomes: Counting weekends and vacations, 80 percent of their waking hours are spent outside of the regular school day.
Programs like before and after school, enrichment and summer learning can fill that time and help boost students’ reading and math performance, increase school day attendance and graduation rates, reduce childhood hunger and provide social-emotional support. These are all considered expanded learning programs that give students access to a variety of academic and social enrichment.
They benefit families, too.
For the average low-income family, child care costs consume 35 percent of income — five times more than what is considered affordable. As these costs continue to increase and logistics become harder for working parents to juggle, expanded learning programs make it easier for families to access high-quality care when school is not in session.
In 2021, after the devastating effects of the pandemic on children and families, state leaders championed the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program to help support students who are furthest from opportunity and were most impacted by the pandemic. This $4 billion investment was part of the most significant funding increase in California’s history, accounting for $2,750 more per student for grades TK-6, and put the state on the path toward universal access to expanded learning in the most underserved communities.
Investing in expanded learning was intended to reduce disparities by giving more children access to high-quality supportive learning environments and more parents financial freedom and employment opportunities.
The good news is it’s already working. We’ve seen the positive impact up close as the YMCA of San Diego County works with more than 14,200 students daily across San Diego County. Since the increase in funding for expanded learning programs, over 4,000 more students are being served, with fair pay increases to over 700 staff in the program, and more full-time employment opportunities.
Working with historically under-resourced communities with high metrics of kids living in poverty, these programs compliment the school day in ways that have previously been out of reach. Now, families can depend on higher quality care and enrichment that includes many days when school is not in session. Students themselves are having more fun, traveling to new places like the San Diego Zoo, museums, playing sports in leagues and enjoying nature-based experiences.
These experiences that connect learning about conservation, creative arts, career opportunities and more are supporting positive mental health, enthusiasm for learning and importantly show students that no matter their ZIP code, they are worthy of an amazing educational opportunity.
While these types of enrichment programs can be magical, the reason they work is quite simple. For students to truly succeed, the regular school day isn’t enough. This is true especially for students from low-income families, who on average get 6,000 less hours of mentorship and learning time than students from middle- or upper-income families by the time they reach sixth grade. Expanded learning programs like those that are before and after school and summer learning programs extend the regular school calendar by more than 60 percent and that extra time is an essential strategy in equalizing student outcomes and closing these opportunity gaps.
There’s nothing better for students than more time. They need more time to learn, to play and to explore a world where they deserve to have more opportunity, not less. Californians have known this for a long time, dating back to their majority vote for Proposition 49 in 2002 that increased funding for before- and afterschool programs. More recently, 83 percent of voters surveyed in an Afterschool Alliance post-election poll said that afterschool and summer programs are an absolute necessity for their communities.
Parents also know how vital expanded learning is — for every one family with a child in an after-school program, three more are waiting to get in.
And most importantly, kids know this. “I love it because I like to come and play with my friends and have fun. The trips are really cool,” said one student from National School District. “It’s important because they help us be kind to others with no bullying and always be respectful.”