American after 3pm report
America After 3PM infographic. Courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.

Need For Afterschool Programs

Inequity is often readily visible, yet remains unseen. 

The unmet demand for quality afterschool programs is immense: an additional 25 million children would be enrolled if a program were available to them.

Unmet demand disproportionally impacts communities of color. According to the 2020 review, 58% of black children and 55% of Latinx children would be enrolled if a program were available to them.

Cost and access are the key obstacles both for families of color and low-income families
America After 3PM infographic. Courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.

Cost and access are the key obstacles both for families of color and low-income families.

For the 2022-2023 school year, an additional major hurdle for afterschool programs is recruiting and retaining qualified employees.
America After 3PM infographic. Courtesy of the Afterschool Alliance.

For the 2022-2023 school year, an additional major hurdle for afterschool programs is recruiting and retaining qualified employees.

Chart from After-School Programs Face Perfect Storm of Staffing and Funding Problems, Survey finds by Lauraine Langreo in EducationWeek, July 14, 2022.

Impact Of Dance

Findings reported by the National Dance Education Organization (www.NDEO.org) show that dance can help improve numerous cognitive and social-emotional skills and abilities, including:

  • Understanding of abstract geometric concepts and problem-solving.
  • Persistence and discipline toward goals.
  • Attention, recall, and making connections between new and past learning.
  • Social interaction and emotional well-being.
  • Conflict resolution that offers self-expression, acceptance, and empathy.
  • Non-verbal communication and language skills for ESL and special needs students.