National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment Resource Library

As states seek to invest in cost modeling tools, providers and funders must think strategically about how the tools can best be used. This issue brief explores how tools can answer some of the most pressing questions facing the early childhood field such as workforce compensation, increasing child care supply, and determining subsidy rates that meet the true cost of care. The brief includes examples from NM, DC, TX, NYC, and MA.   

The nation's success in meeting the need for quality child care depends on our ability to recruit and retain a competent workforce and registered apprenticeships is one innovative model explored in this issue brief. There are sections on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act; registered apprenticeships and growth and learning; and state and local examples including WV, AL, AR, CO, FL, KY, MD, OK, PA, RI, TX, and WI. A related webinar, Apprenticeships: A Growing Strategy for the Child Care Workforce, includes examples from YMCA of the East Bay and Rhode Island model for family child care.

This issue brief from the Children's Equity Project examines data from the Yale CARES survey of center-based, home-based, and informal child care providers, including 82,000 in 2020 and 50,000 in 2021. The survey found that 45% of providers reported depression, 27% reported stress, and 60% of providers reported increases in children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors. This resource supports equity. This resource supports resiliency.

Child care providers are often at the forefront of offering social-emotional learning and universal mental health support for school-age children. This tip sheet is a supplemental resource for direct service providers and offers simple strategies to successfully engage families, address youth development, and enhance staff progress while centering SEL and mental health services. For more information on targeted resources to elevate system and program initiatives, access the NCASE Social-Emotional Learning and Mental Health Toolkit: Support for Systems and Programs Toolkit. 

This planning tool from STEM Next was created to help OST programs that provide STEM programming to engage with families to support youth learning and success through collaborative culture and practices. The tool is organized by a new framework for family engagement in STEM known as CARE: Connect, Act, Reflect, and Empower. The tool was created through a review of the literature and input from an advisory council as well as state afterschool networks and providers. It can also be used by schools. This resource supports equity.

This issue brief is designed to raise understanding and awareness of restorative justice practices and identify ways after school leaders can integrate them. It provides definitions, principles of restorative justice, strategies for how they can be applied in afterschool programs, and resources. There is also a related webinar on Restorative Justice Practices in Afterschool Programs with experts from CA and FL who are researchers and who are applying restorative justice practices in schools and afterschool programs. See: Restorative Justice Practices in Afterschool Programs

 This resource supports resiliency. This resource supports equity.

On September 21, 2023, the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment hosted the webinar, “Back to School—and Afterschool—Refresh: Updated Resources for System- and Program-Level Staff” to re-introduce the NCASE Resource Library, along with NCASE developed and recently updated toolkits. Resources highlighted in the webinar included:

NCASE Resource Library

https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/ncase-resource-library 

School-Age Consumer Education Toolkit

https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/ncase-resource-library/school-age-consumer-education-toolkit 

OST Professional Development System Building Toolkit

https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/ncase-resource-library/ncase-out-school-time-professional-development-system-building-toolkit 

OST Emergency Preparedness Recovery and Response Toolkit

https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/ncase-resource-library/ost-emergency-preparedness-response-and-recovery-toolkit

While Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations are the fastest growing racial group in the United States, their unique challenges are not adequately studied or supported by current policies. This issue brief reviews the diversity and growth of various AANHPI populations and a beginning discussion about policies and programs to consider adopting.  This brief includes a map of distribution of the nearly 3.7 million AANHPI children by state, including which states have added AAPI studies curriculum.  

This issue brief from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families has reviewed 35 existing research studies on the strengths and resilience within Latinx families. Some of the key findings include that Latinx children enter schools with strong social skills, that children and families may benefit from bilingual and bicultural status, that children experience high quality parenting that is warm and supportive with good routines and predictability, and that fathers that are highly committed. The brief also makes recommendations on programs, practices, and research needed for the future. This resource supports equity.  

Spurred by unprecedented federal funding and a national call to counter covid-related learning loss, this Westat report provides a summary of how states responded to ARPA funds for summer learning and enrichment programs. The results are presented in 34 slides, based on a review of plans that states created and interviews with 37 states on the vision they developed, and how they engaged partners, implemented priorities, and evaluated results.