Survey Shows Afterschool Participation Grows but Unmet Demand Nears 20 Million Children

Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Survey Shows Afterschool Participation Grows but Unmet Demand Nears 20 Million Children
 
“America After 3 PM,” a new survey commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance, finds that participation in afterschool programs has increased dramatically, from 6.5 million children in 2004 to 10.2 million today. Unmet demand has increased, as well. The parents of 19.4 million children not in afterschool programs say they would enroll their children if programs were available.
 
Every day, children in afterschool programs expand their horizons, enhance their skills and discover their passions by programming computers, planting gardens, cleaning up parks and playgrounds, and by participating in many more activities that prepare them for college, career and life. But despite an increase in participation over the last decade, the new survey of 30,000 American households found that, for every child currently enrolled in an afterschool program, there are two more who are not – and whose parents would like them to be....