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• The parents of more than 28 million school-age children work outside the home. (U.S. Department of Labor)
• In communities today, 14.3 million school-age children take care of themselves after the school day ends. (America After 3 PM, May 2004)
• 96 percent of working parents pay the full costs of child care. Low-income families who pay for child care spend 35 percent of their income on it. (National Catholic Reporter, 2003)
• On school days, the hours between 3p.m. and 6p.m. are the peak hours for juvenile crime and experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and sex. (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2002)

There are not enough afterschool programs.

• Only 6.5 million K-12 children (11%) participate in afterschool programs. An additional 15 million would participate if a quality program were available in their community. (America After 3 PM, May 2004)
• More than half of voters (55 percent) think that there are not enough afterschool programs available for children in America today. (Afterschool Alliance Poll, September 2003)
• Three-quarters of voters (76 percent) are concerned that there will not be new afterschool programs and some existing programs may have to reduce their services or close their doors because no new federal funds were allocated in 2003. (Afterschool Alliance Poll, September 2003)
• Mayors surveyed in 86 cities reported that only one-third of the children needing afterschool care were receiving it. (U.S. Conference of Mayors, January 2003)
• 71 percent of principals who reported not having afterschool programs in their schools cite a lack of funding as the reason for not having a program. (National Association of Elementary School Principals, September 2001)

Evaluations prove that afterschool programs keep kids safe, help working families and improve academic achievement.

• Teens who do not participate in afterschool programs are nearly three times more likely to skip classes than teens who do participate. They are also three times more likely to use marijuana or other drugs, and they are more likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and engage in sexual activity. (YMCA of the USA, March 2001)
• Students who participate in extracurricular activities have better grades, feel greater attachment to school, have lower truancy rates and reach higher levels of achievement in college, as documented by a 17-year study that followed 1,800 sixth-graders in ten Michigan schools through high school and college. ("Extra Benefits Tied to Extracurriculars," Education Week, October 2000)
• Parents in New York City said that their child's afterschool program helped them balance work and family life (Policy Studies Associates, Inc., February 2001):
  • 60 percent said they missed less work than before because of the program.
  • 59 percent said it supported them in keeping their jobs.
• Students in a statewide program in California improved their standardized test scores (SAT-9) in both reading and math by percentages almost twice that of other students and also had better school attendance. (University of California Irvine, May 2001)
• The boys and girls randomly selected from welfare households to participate in the Quantum Opportunities afterschool program were half as likely to drop out of high school and two and one half times more likely to go on to further education after high school than students not selected to participate. (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2000)

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