More Ohio Kids Taking Part In After School Programs

Friday, October 23, 2009
Topics: Education, Politics
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A group that advocates for after school programs puts Ohio on its list of "states on the move" when it comes to providing supervised activities for kids. But, it says, there are still lots of children faring for themselves. Ideastream's Bill Rice reports.

Five years ago, the Afterschool Alliance conducted a national survey to determine how children were spending their time after school lets out.  A similar survey conducted this past spring shows Ohio has made progress since 2004 in providing programs for kids, says Jodi Grant, the group’s Executive Director. 

“In Ohio it went from seven percent of kids in afterschool programs to twelve percent.”

Ohio is one of six states “on the move” in getting kids into after school programs, Grant says.  But there are still many kids that are going unsupervised after school - 30 percent,, or more than 600 thousand, according to the survey, up from 28 percent five years ago.  Grant says a lot of that is because of the economy. 

Grant:  “We think other types of arrangements are falling through, So where kids might have been in supervised clubs or with a nanny or an oper or in a different type of child care arrangement, those have fallen through.  So as a result we’re seeing more kids taking care of themselves.”

Most of those are middle and high school students, although a small number are younger.  There are also more kids being cared for after school by older siblings rather than adults. 

Nationwide, more than fifteen million children go unsupervised from 3-6 pm on school days.