After-school care stressed

Working parents in Utah aren't in grade school any longer, but there is one bell they must answer every day — the last one.

It is the official signal that the time between when the kids are let out for the day and when the folks get home from work has begun. The Utah Afterschool Network believes the bell is sounding an alarm to the community in general, which should be looking at after-school as what it is — as crucial as classrooms to a child's education.

A review of programs in place shows those hours are pivotal to a child's overall success in life, said Christine Forstner, the network's executive director, after a lunchtime gathering of business leaders with which the network hopes to forge an alliance over the next three years.

Education inside the classroom gets all the attention, but what students do outside of school hours has as much bearing on their success in school and later life, Forstner said. The situation is magnified by another fact: 84 percent of Utah children are in families with both parents working or in single-parent households. According to national studies, a child's school workweek is 25 hours shorter than their parents' workweek, and 80 percent of employees with children report missing work due to child-care scheduling issues.

Despite research showing that efforts to increase school-related activities during the hours of 3 to 6 p.m. have an immediate positive effect on students, on the family, the school and the community, some 117,000 school-aged children in Utah are on their own at 3:15 p.m. every weekday. Only 25,000 are involved in after-school programs, according to the 3-year-old network, which has begun in earnest its campaign to double that number by 2012.

According to network data, every dollar spent on after-school programs returns $8 of benefits in reduced crime, fewer high school dropouts and fewer teen pregnancies.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, students who spend no time in sanctioned after-school programs or extracurricular activities are at a 50 percent higher risk to use drugs, to do poorer in school and to get into trouble away from home than kids who do.

The benefits of after-school programs are almost automatic and immediate, car dealer and network governing board member Steve Brown told the group. He has seen results firsthand in Provo School District and has produced a short public awareness film highlighting after-school programs that advises the business owners, educators, community leaders and elected officials that it's time they get involved.

"You don't have to have something fancy," he said. "All you have to have is passion."

More information is available at www.UtahAfterSchool.org or by calling 801-359-2722.

E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com