What is the greatest challenge to maintaining successful after-school programs?

Holding parents and students more accountable to be present on a daily basis to make the programs more efficient. The program will only be successful if students are consistent and attend on a regular basis and not when it's used as a daycare for parents.

Staffing is the biggest problem for us. Getting qualified people is the primary problem because of either the need for our own staff to work extra hours, or finding part-timers to work too short schedules for them to make much money. The interest level on the part of parents and students is often not as high as we'd like, either.

The staff makes the difference. I saw one of the best in Homewood, Alabama where the staff had been there long-term and the program has matured. They have a place designated in the school so that they do not have to share space with classroom teachers. I highly recommend anyone take a lot at this outstanding program. Shades Cahaba Elementary School , 3001 Independence Dr., Homewood, AL 35209. Principal is Sue Grogan. Phone #205-871-1113.

For my city, Boston, Massachusetts, the greatest single barrier to participation in after school programs is lack of transporation. Lack of transportation is concealed within the "lack of funding" catch all that garnered the most votes in your poll but should be separated out and looked at as a single issue. Likely funders of all stripes - state, federal, private foundation and individual donors - have demonstrated willingness to fund all aspects of program growth and improvement but none has been willing to begin to help local districts to pick up the costs of "late buses" so students ca get safely home. True enough, districts and funders have not given enough to make after school programs widely available or even high quality where they exist, but until there are late buses for after school programs there will be inadequate parent confidence and student participation to push after school participation past the tipping point to make the programs an integral part of public schooling.

Traditional schools especially in rural communities have been providing a host of enrichment programs in the area of sports for all seasons, (Sports would be a letter for a different time.) thatre, forensics, speech, drama, music (band, choir, and the like.) Urban communities, strapped by a lack of will of the tax payer to provide basic infrastructure replacement, have lost much of their after school enrichment activities. The district I work for has closed rather than improved schools. We are no longer manufacturing but we are warehousing our youth. School is still the life blook of many communities. Another more cynical way of looking at it is: What, another unfunded mandate which makes me miss more time from my family. I am sorry for students that do not have family; is that a reason I should have to abandon mine?

I have run a credit recovery program for high school students for almost ten years. Participation in the program has dropped significantly over the last four years. It is supported by the district to keep cost down and we are charging the same as we did 7 years ago. Increasing focus on our state testing program has shifted emphasis away from having enough credits to graduate to passing the state test. The schools and district get too much public attention on test scores and almost none on students failing their classes. Seems ironic, but all too true.

You need the right people running the program. As in teaching, the right people make the program work.

We have community members and students interested in after school programs but struggle with the transportation issue. We bus all of our students and provide a degree of after school transportation at the secondary level. However, no transportation is available for our elementary students due to the high costs. Working parents are not able to transport elementary students home; therfore student participation is restricted.

I had been teaching an after school art program after semi-retiring from the elementary school where I've been teaching for the past twenty years - until this year. Now no-one, however qualified and however successful their program has been, can have an after school class without their own personal insurance or insurance through an umbrella organization. I was told that this is becoming common among many school districts. That would cost $500 a year which would preclude my teaching these popular classes unless I was to offer many more classes at various school sites. It means all of our after school programs have been cancelled except for chess, which has a national (insured) organization. Who decides these things and why? I'm still trying to find out and to see what can be done about it.