Equity Issues in Education
Summer Program Needs Not Being Met, Especially for Low-Income Families
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already serious problem for
families, in particular low-income families: access to structured
summer programs.
According to new
research commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance and conducted
by Edge Research, participation in summer programs had been growing,
with 47% of families reporting at least one member of their family
participating in any type of summer program, up from 33% in 2013 and
25% in 2008. However, the pandemic interrupted that growth, and
participation fell to 34% (close to 2013’s levels), but with many
participating virtually. The report, America
After 3PM: Time for a Game-Changing Summer, was based on
responses from 29,595 households, with a total of 53,287 children.
According to research, even with the growth in 2019, the numbers were
concerning. Why? Although 12.6 million K–12 students participated
in a “structured summer experience” that year — defined as “a
summer learning program, sports program, summer camp, summer school,
or summer job or internship,” but not child care — another 13.9
million who wanted to participate were unable to. That’s about one
in three children who did not participate in a structured summer
program.
Opportunities are not meeting demand, in particular for low-income
families.
According to the report: “Higher income children are nearly three
times more likely to participate in a structured summer experience
than children from lower income families; 9.2 million higher income
children compared to 3.3 million low-income children. Approximately 3
in 4 children who were in a structured summer experience were from
higher income families (74 percent), compared to 1 in 4 children from
families with low incomes (26 percent).”
Further, according to the report’s authors: “Comparing trend data
at the household level, although the percentage of families with low
incomes reporting that their child took part in a summer program
increased slightly between 2013 and 2019 (from 34 percent to 38
percent), the percentage of families with higher incomes with a child
in a summer program saw much greater growth during the same time
period, jumping from 33 percent to 53 percent.”
The cost of these programs was by far the leading reason low-income
families did not enroll their children in a program. Overall, 39% of
all respondents, regardless of income, reported cost as a reason for
not enrolling their children. That tied with “having other plans
for the summer” among all survey respondents.
Some other barriers for low-income families:
-
Transportation, cited by 23% of low-income
respondents;
-
Not knowing about program availability (23%); and
-
Summer programs not available in their community
(15%).
Between low-income and high-income families, there was a great
disparity in the priorities for attending summer programs. According
go the report: “Low-income parents place a greater emphasis on
reducing risky behaviors (23 percentage point difference), snacks and
meals (21 percentage point difference), helping prevent their child
from losing academic ground (14 percentage point difference), and
helping build life skills (13 percentage point difference), as well
as a variety of activities (12 percentage point difference), music or
arts (11 percentage point difference), and STEM learning
opportunities (10 percentage point difference).”
Meanwhile, 88% of respondents indicated they support public funding
for summer programs for those with few opportunities. That’s up
from 85% support in 2014 and 83% in 2009.
The complete report, Time for a Game-Changing Summer, and a dashboard
containing highlights can be found at afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM.