Here’s why out-of-school time learning programs need federal funding

That is why the Learn All the Time (LATT) Network supports using funds from the ARPA/ESSER III to initiate and support meaningful collaboration between community-based organizations and school districts. We must not only consider afterschool and summer programs as a complement to academic learning, but also see them as fundamental to whole child development, family stability, economic growth, and community development.

An initiative of the Andy Roddick Foundation, LATT serves as the hub for high-quality out-of-school time learning in our community, connecting program providers and other stakeholders around afterschool and summer workforce development, program quality improvement, and data collection and evaluation. LATT currently includes more than 30 out-of-school time learning providers working together to provide quality programming for over 57,000 youth across Central Texas. Whether it is creating summer camps centered around reading and writing practice, hosting afterschool virtual musical therapy, or modifying curricula to practice positivity and recovery from difficult situations, LATT Network members are showing the capabilities and importance of out-of-school time programming.

We find it imperative that afterschool and summer programs in Central Texas become part of a comprehensive local and regional strategy to help students and families recover from the pandemic and therefore receive the ARPA/ESSERIII investment required to ensure positive results and measurable outcomes. We must seize this opportunity to build something sustainable, communal and game-changing: a functioning and equitable ecosystem of support, both in and out of school.