The After School Enrichment Program, McKinley Elementary
School San Francisco, California
The Challenge: How Can We Serve Low-Income Children
in Our Community?
When the Afterschool School Enrichment Program (ASEP) first opened, all of the families of its 20 participants were able to pay a monthly tuition. ASEP program directors realized, however, that many low-income children at the school were being left out. They set out on a mission to find a way to serve these children.
ASEP learned that if the program became a state-licensed child-care center, they could access federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) dollars, an important long-term source of funding for many afterschool programs.
The Process
ASEP contacted the Community Care Licensing Department, a part of the Department of Social Services in California, to determine how to become a licensed child care provider. They learned that all programs funded by CCDF providers must meet and keep staff/child ratios, health, and safety requirements set by the state. In addition, some states require certification or registration of providers. After inspections by the Department of Community Care Licensing, they were granted the license. The approval process took 6 months. Once the license was secured, funding from CCDF was tapped to subsidize low-income students who met income eligibility requirements.
A key step for ASEP was receiving free legal assistance to file the necessary paperwork to become a licensed child care facility. A lawyer friend of the program director recommended contacting the Bay Area Bar Association, which referred them to a lawyer willing to provide pro bono services.
The Outcome
ASEP is now a licensed, nonprofit child-care center for school-age children. Based in a school, ASEP serves 120 of the 230 school students. Most importantly, ASEP is free to 85 percent of the children attending the program, with partial scholarships awarded to the remaining 15 percent.
Applying ASEP's Success at Your Program
- Determine if there are additional low-income children
your program could be serving.
- Find out what the requirements are for your program
to be licensed by the state as a child care facility.
Contact your local Child Care Resource and Referral
Agency (R & R). Resource and referral agencies are
your local experts on child care and provide parents
with many services, including referrals to local
child care providers. These local agencies also
help build the supply of child care. The R & R's
provide an entry point to the child care field,
helping providers meet licensing requirements. Resource
and referral agencies also support providers by
offering low-cost or free training in diverse topics
such as health and safety, child development, and
sound business practices. Agencies work with local
and state governments and the private sector to
leverage resources for building and maintaining
the supply of quality child care. To find the Child
Care Resource and Referral Agency in your community,
visit http://www.childcareaware.org.
- Call your local Bar Association or Legal Aid Society
to determine if your program can receive pro bono
legal assistance to help file your paperwork. Use
your local phone book to find free legal services
in your community. Look under "legal services" in
the "community services" section for listings of
legal service programs in your area. Some law schools
also offer pro bono or reduced cost services to
non-profits.
About this funding source:
The CCDF (also called the Child Care and Development
Block Grant - CCDBG) is one of the largest funders
of afterschool care for school-age children of low-income
families. It provides $4.8 billion in funding to help
more than 700,000 school-age children with assistance
for before- and after-school care, as well as summer
programs. The state-level Quality Set-Aside feature
of CCDBG offers funds ($18 million in fiscal year
2004) for practitioner training, technical assistance
and grants for start-up or expansion. Learn more via
our funding database.
The Afterschool Investments Project (http://nccic.org/afterschool)
is supported by the Child Care Bureau of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, and provides
technical assistance to Child Care and Development
Fund grantees and other state and local leaders supporting
afterschool efforts.
Additional details on using child care funds to support
your afterschool program can be found in the Finance
Project's Using CCDF to Finance Out-of-School Time
and Community School Initiatives (www.financeproject.org/Publications/Brief7.pdf).
About ASEP:
The After School Enrichment Program's mission is to
provide a safe, nurturing and enriching environment
for school-age children in the hours afterschool.
The program offers daily homework help and small-group
tutoring, as well as instruction in the natural sciences,
reading, writing, arts, drama, cooking, and physical
education. ASEP also arranges one educational field
trip each week.
As both a licensed childcare center and a program
that is run in partnership with the district, ASEP
is able to obtain funding from a variety of sources:
the city, the school district, childcare subsidies,
tuition payments, Team Up for Youth, foundations and
individual giving. ASEP also accesses in-kind support
and free or low-cost labor. The program has four youth
workers from the Mayor's Youth Employment and Education
Project, three Americorps workers from the Bay Area
Youth Agency Consortium, two classrooms from the district
and monthly science classes from the Academy of Sciences.
