Afterschool Alliance: COVID-19

To help afterschool and summer learning programs through the re-opening process, we've curated a number of resources, guides, and examples. From acquiring funding to finding staff and mobilizing parents in your community, we can equip your program with the strategies and guidance to make COVID relief opportunities work for your kids.

Planning for summer learning programs
Operating during COVID
Recruiting staff
Reaching out to school district leaders
Funding support
Mobilizing support from parents
Graphics to promote your program
Blueprints, factsheets, quick briefs, and more

Planning for summer learning programs

Afterschool Webinar: Planning for a Game-Changing Summer
- Blog: Resources to help you plan a game-changing summer
America After 3PM: What Parents Want in Summer
National Summer Learning Association resources:
Wallace Foundation: Summer Learning Toolkit

Operating during COVID

CDC guidance
Look up your state and district health and safety plans for schools and camps
Contact your state afterschool network and sign up for updates. Your state network is a valuable resource for guidance on operations, information on potential new sources of fundings from federal COVID relief dollars, and professional development.

Recruiting staff

Is your afterschool program hiring?

Use our Fall 2021 Staff Recruitment Toolkit! This collection of materials is designed to help program providers recruit and hire new staff. Includes outreach strategies, messages, and easy-to-tailor flyers and graphics.

Reaching out to school and district leaders

Schools and school districts have significant funding from federal COVID relief efforts that can support afterschool and summer programming. The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act specifically names afterschool and summer programs as a strategy that can be used to support student’s academic, social, and emotional wellbeing.

Use this Outreach Toolkit to generate a letter and prep for meeting with your local school leaders about how you can support students.

Explore Partnering with Schools to Reopen and Meet Students' Needs, a table that describes how afterschool programs can help meet kids' needs for different strategies schools are using to reopen. This includes messages you can use to make the case for involving afterschool leaders in discussions about protocols and schedules that are being developed for instruction, transportation and safety procedures in the coming school year.

Use these Resources to help make the case for using funds to support afterschool and summer programs: Evidence-based strategies & examples of programs supporting students’ recovery

Funding support

The federal government has provided significant funding to states and localities, including funds that can be used to support afterschool and summer programs, and policies around some funding streams have changed to adapt to serving during COVID.

Policy and Regulations covers changes and new resources across federal funding sources.

Also see our Funding Database.

Mobilizing support from parents

Afterschool networks, leaders and providers can help engage parents and ask them to contact their child's principal. State networks can also reach out to help coordinate and support programs in districts that have a politically influential representative in Congress or the state legislature.

Sample email from providers to families - A template email afterschool providers can send to families requesting that they email their child's principal about including afterschool in reopening plans. The email includes a sample letter from parent to principal in both English and Spanish.