Issue brief

This issue brief explores Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) and how these funds can support summer and afterschool programs. It reviews amount of ESSER funds for each state, what the funds can be used for, and how programs can access these funds through grants and contracts. It also includes examples of how CT, GA, NH, UT, and WV are using the funds. This brief helps programs know how to access these federal stimulus funds.

This report explores ways to cover the true cost of high quality child care in order to meet the needs of children, families, and the broader economy. By creating a new and equitable financial model for child care, it will ensure that care is affordable for families, that the workforce is compensated at a living wage, and that programs have resources to meet high quality standards. It includes the link to a refreshed version of a 2018 interactive cost estimation tool for home-based child care, and for children ages birth to five.

This issue brief summarizes the research that shows that high-dosage tutoring is one of the most effective strategies in producing large learning gains for a wide range of students. It includes at-a-glance design principles including frequency of tutoring, group size, personnel, curriculum, measurement, and scheduling. This is an important resource for any out-of-school staff person who may work within school to provide tutoring or any program thinking about providing tutoring during afterschool or summer. This resource supports the COVID-19 response.

The Wallace Foundation has created four issue briefs to help state system planners make decisions about spending American Rescue Plan funds. The briefs summarize the evidence on outcomes and implementation guidance and each brief includes a bibliography. Topics include: (1) The Importance of Adult Skills in SEL; (2) Summer Learning with Academic and Non-Academic Activities; (3) AfterSchool Coordinating Systems to Support Afterschool Programming; and (4) The Role of Principal Leadership in School Recovery and Re-opening.

This report summarizes research on changes in licensing requirements and policies for child care centers, family child care homes, and group care homes. It compares 2017 data to that of 2014. 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. It also includes requirements for training licensing staff.  

This updated research brief provides a summary of key evaluations on the impact of afterschool programs during the pandemic. This summary can be a helpful resource for programs building the case for accessing stimulus funding as it refers to impact of afterschool on academic growth and engagement in learning; benefits of summer learning, fostering key foundational skills and boosting students’ well-being; and setting youth up to thrive post high school.

This practice brief explores some of the current mental health needs of school-age children, their families, and the OST workforce. In addition, this brief discusses the social and emotional constructs that promote resilience, as well as examples of mental health supports that states and local jurisdictions can consider for collaborative implementation.

This NCASE practice brief explores challenges and promising practices to support school-age children in accessing high-quality experiences in home-based child care (HBCC).

This issue brief identifies policy opportunities to strengthen school-age child care, based on findings drawn from a literature review, case studies of five afterschool programs, and inputs from experts in the field. It includes strategies to support working families, strengthen the quality of child care settings, scale supports for social-emotional and behavioral health, address unmet need, and pursue sustainable cross-sector financing strategies. This resource supports the COVID-19 response. 

The Urban Institute conducted research in CT, OK, and D.C. to understand which families work nontraditional hour care (NTH). The study found that NTH work schedules are more common for families who already face challenges because of structural racism and systemic inequities including those who are Black and Latinx, low-income, lower levels of education, and one-parent families. There is need to address access issues given that only a small fraction of centers provide NTH care and only one-third of family child care providers. In addition, public funds aren't often available for NTH care.