Demand Remains High, but Afterschool Programs Worry for Their Futures

For thousands of public school students, the ringing of the final bell doesn’t signal an end to their day.

Instead, they might shuffle into the cafeteria or computer lab for an afterschool program. It’s where they’ll spend a few hours with teachers or tutors doing their homework, socializing with their friends, and doing arts or science projects.

Beyond academic help, afterschool programs are a critical source of free child care for families, providing a safe environment for kids until parents get out of work.

But afterschool program providers are increasingly worried about whether their contracts will be renewed, hit by a combination of school district budget shortfalls, federal pandemic relief money dissipating and the Trump administration’s education funding cuts.

Administrators at roughly 80 percent of afterschool programs are worried about sustainability and future funding, according to the Afterschool Alliance, which published the results of a survey of more than 1,200 afterschool program providers polled in the fall of 2024.

This comes after both the organization’s survey and federal data show that demand for afterschool programs remains high, with more than half reporting waiting lists.

“For me, the story of the survey is that programs are getting back to normal, right where they were before pre-pandemic levels, that they’re providing a lot of valuable support for the kids and families that they serve,” Nikki Yamashiro, the Afterschool Alliance’s vice president of research, says. “But they’re really struggling to meet demand, they’re facing challenges like worries about sustainability, and so we need to find more ways to provide the support that they need.”

Will Funding Continue?

About four out of five afterschool programs surveyed said they were worried about long-term and future funding, the Afterschool Alliance report found, with another 63 percent saying they had concerns about losing existing funds.

The percentage of providers who were optimistic about the future dropped by 10 percentage points compared to 2023 and now sits at 62 percent.

Part of the issue is that emergency money issued to schools during the height of the pandemic has been discontinued, and school districts were required to finalize plans in fall 2024 for the last disbursement of funding.

The percentage of providers that got emergency relief funds fell to 14 percent in the fall of 2024, down from a high of 20 percent in 2021, survey data shows.

Nearly half of survey participants said they used relief funds to recruit and hire staff. Roughly a quarter of providers anticipate having to reduce staff due to emergency funds winding down, and 28 percent said they will need to increase fees to parents to make up for the funding gap.

Those that operate at schools with higher percentages of low-income students or students of color report higher concern about losing funding.

School districts and families around the country are feeling the pinch.

Baltimore City Schools suddenly ended 25 tutoring and 44 afterschool programs in early April after the Trump administration announced it would not reimburse the district for $48 million in pandemic emergency spending.

In High Demand

Survey data shows that, five years after the pandemic ushered in a near-total shift in how they operate, about a quarter of afterschool programs are back to their pre-pandemic capacity. Another 33 percent are serving more students than they were prior to 2020.

That doesn’t mean that every kid who wants to join an afterschool program gets a chance. A quarter of programs said their capacity is lower than it was before the pandemic, and the number of programs with waiting lists — 53 percent — is virtually unchanged since 2021. More than 80 percent of afterschool program providers are worried that not all students can access their programs.

In some parts of the country, families are feeling the pressure of shrinking afterschool programs.

Parents of students in Berkeley Unified School District in California are urging the school board to roll back layoffs of afterschool program staff, saying it would worsen the program’s existing waiting list of more than 200 families.

Northern Michigan is an “afterschool desert,” with one expert estimating that around 750,000 children in the mostly rural region want to be in an afterschool or summer program but have little or no access to one.

So why, then, are the officials who control district, state and federal purse strings not cutting checks to create more space in afterschool programs?

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Yamashiro says. “We know that programs are in high demand. We know families want more access to these programs.”

Nine in 10 registered voters said that afterschool programs are an “absolute necessity,” according to an Afterschool Alliance poll conducted in the fall, and 80 percent said they wanted elected officials to allocate more money to those programs.

“The public support is there for increased funding,” Yamashiro says. “Our hope is that elected leaders hear that. Some states are dedicating more monies to afterschool and summer programs, which is really a positive thing, but programs definitely need more support to meet the high levels of demand that they’re facing right now.”

Mental Health Concerns

Beyond the academic and child care needs that afterschool programs fill, the majority of survey participants reported offering activities that support students’ well-being. That includes everything from time to socialize with peers and mentors to activities like yoga and meditation.

More afterschool providers are worried that students have “unproductive screentime” and are missing opportunities for connection. Programs serving larger populations of low-income students were more likely to be “very” or “extremely concerned” about students’ mental health.

“Kids are experiencing more mental health, social/emotional needs than ever before in the history of our program,” one provider wrote in their survey response. “I am so worried for our kids, and we don’t have enough staff or resources to adequately help them.”