Out-of-school-time (OST) refers to programs that offer students' activities after school and/or during the summer. Despite evidence of significant benefits and a clear demand from families, Pennsylvania has no dedicated state funding to provide OST programming and existing federal funding is insufficient to cover costs, making it an outlier among neighboring states and national trends recognizing the importance of funding quality OST.
This brief examines Pennsylvania’s growing need for expanded OST programming, summarizes research evidence of the value of OST programming, identifies existing quality standards available to guide investments to high quality OST programs, and reviews how other states provide supplemental funding to OST that could serve as models to policymakers in Pennsylvania.
RFA is grateful to The Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation for their ongoing support of the PACER project. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.
