National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment Resource Library

This toolkit summarizes best practice tools and strategies for fostering family engagement in Out-of-School Time (OST) programs. Developed by BOSTnet years ago based on a four-year initiative aimed at improving youth outcomes through family involvement, this classic tool is still relevant today. It offers a way to self-assess program level of family engagement, as well as strategies and tips for developing and implementing an action plan.

Child Care Aware created this web-based school-age program checklist to help families select a high quality school-age program. It has questions on topics like health and safety, indoor and outdoor environment, caregiver-child interactions, staff qualifications, and parent partnerships. There is a link to print out the five-page checklist. 

This blog is the second part in a series on prevention and responding to substance use and trauma in Alaska. It describes a collaborative effort and training on trauma-engaged response. It includes a link to Transforming Schools: A Framework for Trauma-Engaged Practice in Alaska that has material relevant for afterschool programs and system planners on relationship building, professional learning, policies, self-care, and responding to historical trauma for indigenous people. See: https://education.alaska.gov/tls/safeschools/pdf/transforming-schools.pdf. This resource supports resiliency.

Federal, state, and local agencies are increasing investments and building capacity in emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. Emergencies of all types can occur abruptly and cause devastation to programs, families, communities, and entire towns or cities. Emergencies come in various forms, ranging from an active shooter event to a weather-related disaster to the onset of food poisoning affecting multiple people at the same time. No matter the emergency, programs that work with children and youth must be prepared to respond accordingly to maintain the health and safety of everyone.

The purpose of the Out-of-School Time Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (EPRR) Toolkit is to assist out-of-school time (OST) programs (staff, volunteers, etc.) in developing emergency preparedness plans that address the distinct needs of OST programs.

This NCASE toolkit is arranged into six sections:

-Overview
-Background
-Preparedness
-Response
-Recovery
-Appendix

(This resource supports the COVID-19 response.)

On May 16, 2019, NCASE facilitated a webinar to share strategies and introduced new resources aimed at mitigating and preventing the “summer slide” of lost academic progress that many school-age children experience during the summer months. Highlighting the value of summertime child care programming, the webinar included discussion of:

• NCASE’s new summer-related resources
  • Parent and Caregiver Tipsheet
  • Provider Tipsheet
• The importance of summer months in promoting school-age children’s growth and development  
• Strategies for school-age child care providers and parents to prevent the summer slide, including a new set of tip sheets from NCASE   
• Ways that Child Care Resource and Referral agencies can share information on promising practices with providers and parents   

This practice brief developed by the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE), is a follow up to the recent research brief, “Adverse Childhood Experiences and the School-Age Population". It includes an overview of ACES mitigation and prevention strategies from a national perspective using CDC and ACES Connection information, and highlights specific state examples of legislation, policies, and practices that have been adopted.

This toolkit offers age-appropriate strategies for maximizing opportunities for promoting friendships between youth with and without disabilities. Although not specifically geared to Out-of-School Time (OST), the strategies are applicable. Further, the toolkit could be a helpful professional development resource. 

On March 28, 2019, the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment hosted the "Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences in Out-of-School Time" webinar.  Co-hosted with the National Afterschool Association, the event included discussion of: research about school-age children's development and the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs); strategies, challenges, and solutions for providing support to school-age children in Out-of-School Time (OST) programs in the areas of social and emotional development, safe zones, family engagement, and academics; and promising practices for state system building that can strengthen supports to help school-age children overcome ACEs and build resilience.

This report aims to challenge the prevailing discourse about Black children from one that overemphasizes limitations and deficits to one that draws upon strengths, assets, and resilience. It weaves together: (1) essays by experts; (2) examples of places where Black children are succeeding; and (3) data on how Black children and families are doing to determine how best to support Black children. Individual state reports are available for Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

This issue brief provides guidance for how states and territories can ensure that they meet Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) requirements that co-payments are affordable and do not act as a barrier to families seeking child care subsidy. It includes a series of questions for lead agencies to consider when designing sliding fee scales, what states may exclude as countable income, an example of a sliding fee scale from Michigan, and a list of how 22 states and two territories have set dollar amounts. This information is important for school-age system planners who may work in partnership with CCDF on setting co-payments.