SEARCH FOR RESOURCES
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
- 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.
Caring for Our Children is a continually updated set of standards based on the best evidence, expertise, and experiences about quality health and safety practices and policies. This is the fourth edition and it includes a list of changes made since the third edition was published in 2011. It is organized into ten chapters, including topics like staffing; program activities for healthy development; nutrition and food service; facilities; playground and play areas; infectious diseases; special needs; and administration.
This issue brief reviews the benefits of a coordinated systems approach between afterschool and workforce. It provides examples of city afterschool models that provide opportunities for career exploration and building skills in effective communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving. It includes a framework developed by the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education from the U.S. Department of Education.
CASEL's District Resource Center is developed in partnership with school districts that are part of the Collaborating Districts Initiative, which has recently been enhanced. This tool kit is also intended to provide resources to out-of-school programs. It is organized into four focus areas: (1) Build Foundational Support and Plan; (2) Strengthen Adult Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies and Capacity; (3) Promote SEL for Students; and (4) Practice Continuous Improvement. There is a tab of resources, organized by alphabetical order so, for example, C includes college and career readiness and R includes restorative practices. There are also rubrics and a section on SEL and Equity.
This video, produced by Temescal Associates, How Kids Learn Foundation, and Change Agent Productions, provides a unique overview of the important role afterschool has played in American history, beginning in the 1880's with the age of industrialization. It is broken into 12 brief chapters that captures the social upheaval of the late 1800's, then the growing need for supervision into the 1900's, and the rapid growth over the past 50 years. There is an accompanying 19-page Learner's Guide that can be used as part of a workshop or a college course here: History of Afterschool in America - Learning Guide.