National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment Resource Library

This report offers practical guidance for out-of-school-time (OST) programs and intermediaries that wish to incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL) activities into their programming for youth. The lessons are derived from RAND’s study over four years of more than 100 afterschool programs across six communities participating in the Wallace Foundation’s Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative (PSELI). The cities are Boston, Dallas, Denver, Palm Beach County, Tacoma, and Tulsa. 

This tool kit can help partners across the nation understand the child care landscape, establish new relationships, and build bipartisan solutions to child care's most pressing challenges. Included are sections on the child care funding landscape; tips for building support; talking points for making the case; and supporting child care and early learning in centers, family child care, and in support of American Indian and Alaskan Native children.  

This toolkit is a research-based resource for OST leaders, staff, and teams who want to make data-driven decisions as they prepare to implement or change an initiative. Toolkit sections include: (1) learning about readiness; (2) assessing readiness; and (3) using resources aligned to your readiness. It may help to also listen to the February 23, 2023 webinar that is a conversation with field leaders from 4-H, YMCA, and Playworks who have integrated tools into their work. See: https://www.air.org/event/getting-ready-change-out-school-time-new-tools-resources-and-conversation-field-leaders 

This report from the Afterschool Alliance summarizes the results of a survey from Fall 2022 of 1,016 providers representing 7,400 centers. The survey found that 1 in 4 providers have not been able to return to pre-pandemic program capacity due to difficulties recruiting and retaining staff; increased costs of running programs; and some issues with demand since many parents are working from home. When asked about supports that would be helpful, the priority was advice about preventing staff burnout and keeping teams engaged. 

This website offers strategies and resources for child care providers to support families and children experiencing homelessness. The resources address topics such as understanding homelessness; eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance (ERSEA) in programs, building responsive relationships with families, health and wellness resources for children, supporting staff as they support homeless families, and connecting with community partners.  While this website was designed for Head Start, it has many useful resources for school-age.  

These briefs summarize research on changes in licensing requirements and policies in every state for child care centers, family child care homes, and group child care homes. They compare 2020 data to that of 2017. Topics covered include staff and provider qualifications and training requirements, child-staff ratios and group sizes, requirements for the care of children, and health and safety requirements for child care facilities. They also include requirements for training licensing staff.  

This 2021 study provides updates from a 2018 clearinghouse of data on supports for early childhood program leaders in state-by-state profiles. The most relevant for school-age is data on administrator qualifications in child care licensing standards and in QRIS, as well as which states have administrator credentials. It offers a national overview, data on states, and policy recommendations.

This tool is designed to assist states and territories with calculating the annual and monthly State Median Income (SMI) and Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPG) used to determine income eligibility and family co-payments for child care subsidy programs. Included are related resources and the tool connects to a Microsoft excel spreadsheet to calculate the SMI; the file is available by emailing [email protected]

This brief presents key findings about state policies and guidance that support students' social and emotional learning (SEL). It showcases the increasing emphasis on SEL, finding that as of 2022, 27 states offer free-standing K-12 SEL competencies and 44 states offer state-specific resources and tools for SEL implementation. It explores reasons for the growth in SEL interest and provides a link to an interactive map that displays SEL competencies, resources, and websites by state.

Out-of-School Time (OST) plays a critical role in supporting working families and in providing children and youth with meaningful relationships, enrichment activities, and social and emotional learning (SEL), which lead to positive developmental outcomes. Additionally, there is a greater-than-ever focus on the potential for OST to support pandemic recovery efforts. To achieve that potential, there needs to be a new investment in the OST workforce.

This brief from the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment provides information, research, and examples of equitable strategies to support recruitment, retention, and rejuvenation of the Out-of-School Time (OST) workforce, a top concern for OST programs.