How much is aftercare at your school, and what does it include?

[Anonymous]

Aftercare at Janney is $26 a day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school uses Polite Piggys. It's around $400 a month, though they also have drop-in options and a sliding income based scale. They offer care on days off (but not federal holidays) and breaks at an extra charge. They have some specials included and have the option of adding on outside specials for extra fees. My impression is they spend a decent amount of time outside and I've never heard my kids mention the use of screens. My kids have generally enjoyed it. We also have experience with Champions and the free DCPS care and PP is far superior to both.

I'm curious---why is Polite Piggys so good? How is it better than the free DCPS aftercare for example?

Not the PP but we used Polite Piggy’s at our old school and while I have affection for a couple of the staff (and abject disdain for one of them) I don’t find them any better or worse than Champions at our new school. It’s more about the individual staff and how nurturing they are, and both companies have staff that are and staff that aren’t. I thought Polite Piggy’s communicated well and the site director especially was really open to supporting my kid when she was having a hard time (there was a lot of bullying type behavior). I didn’t like how they seemed unable to prevent kids (first and second graders) from having and using smart phones during aftercare, showing my kid fight scenes from Black Panther and other movies (in the end just glad it wasn’t p*rn). Haven’t had that issue with Champions but my feeling is more parents at the new school are anti-phone.

Anyway, not sure if this helps with your question. Curious as well why the PP thinks they are superior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school uses Polite Piggys. It's around $400 a month, though they also have drop-in options and a sliding income based scale. They offer care on days off (but not federal holidays) and breaks at an extra charge. They have some specials included and have the option of adding on outside specials for extra fees. My impression is they spend a decent amount of time outside and I've never heard my kids mention the use of screens. My kids have generally enjoyed it. We also have experience with Champions and the free DCPS care and PP is far superior to both.

I'm curious---why is Polite Piggys so good? How is it better than the free DCPS aftercare for example?

Not the PP but we used Polite Piggy’s at our old school and while I have affection for a couple of the staff (and abject disdain for one of them) I don’t find them any better or worse than Champions at our new school. It’s more about the individual staff and how nurturing they are, and both companies have staff that are and staff that aren’t. I thought Polite Piggy’s communicated well and the site director especially was really open to supporting my kid when she was having a hard time (there was a lot of bullying type behavior). I didn’t like how they seemed unable to prevent kids (first and second graders) from having and using smart phones during aftercare, showing my kid fight scenes from Black Panther and other movies (in the end just glad it wasn’t p*rn). Haven’t had that issue with Champions but my feeling is more parents at the new school are anti-phone.

Anyway, not sure if this helps with your question. Curious as well why the PP thinks they are superior.

I'm the PP who prefers Polite Piggys to Champions and free DCPS. We had a horrible experience with free DCPS. Too dependent on screens, teachers weren't willing to take kids outside to play as frequently as we would have liked, and, in our experience, one teacher in particular had unreasonable expectations of kids' abilities to sit still and would punish the kids who acted out by making them lay face down on a rug in the classroom. Sounds lovely, right? I appreciate that this is very teacher dependent, but my kid had no interest of considering going back after that. Our school then moved to Champions, which was a lot better, but we found them to not be as willing to work with outside enrichment providers. Also, we didn't appreciate how they had a habit of giving kids candy as rewards and let the kids eat them during aftercare, even though school leadership asked them to stop. Our school then moved to Polite Piggys. We moved to another school that uses Polite Piggys and our experience was pretty similar at both schools. I like the option of having outside enrichment. Their website is easy to use and their staff is responsive. We haven't had any issues with phones or screens and they take the kids out to play a lot. There's structure and expectations for kid behaviors but there's no unreasonable punishment that I've seen. They don't give the kids candy or let kids eat candy that they may have brought in their own bags.

[Anonymous]

FLEX at Watkins was terrible--aside from pay-for extras, there appeared to be essentially no programming other than having the kids go outside, letting them play together inside, and screen time. We have found Polite Piggy's to be fantastic, with tons of included specials in addition to pay-for extras.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FLEX at Watkins was terrible--aside from pay-for extras, there appeared to be essentially no programming other than having the kids go outside, letting them play together inside, and screen time. We have found Polite Piggy's to be fantastic, with tons of included specials in addition to pay-for extras.

FLEX at LT was similar and equally terrible AND it was massively understaffed just post COVID and they lied about it. LT moved to internal providers (K teacher runs the aftercare and PK teacher enrichment) and everything is much better.

[Anonymous]

My kid was in Polite Piggy’s at Maury last year and there was a lot of giving candy for rewards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous of all of you. We are at lamb. Aftercare is terrible and almost no one gets in after teacher preference and FARMS Preference. It costs 500 for before and aftercare and 440 for just aftercare. Glorified babysitting at best. Terrible!

We are at LAMB too. There are plenty of spots, albeit still a shortage. I have no idea what a FARMS preference is.

It is totally fine, the teachers are generally good and there are no screens. Apparently the snacks are good. Outdoor time everyday, and free dance, yoga, art. Can pay extra for soccer and music classes. It is $110/wk but my kids enjoy going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous of all of you. We are at lamb. Aftercare is terrible and almost no one gets in after teacher preference and FARMS Preference. It costs 500 for before and aftercare and 440 for just aftercare. Glorified babysitting at best. Terrible!

We are at LAMB too. There are plenty of spots, albeit still a shortage. I have no idea what a FARMS preference is.

It is totally fine, the teachers are generally good and there are no screens. Apparently the snacks are good. Outdoor time everyday, and free dance, yoga, art. Can pay extra for soccer and music classes. It is $110/wk but my kids enjoy going.

I agree that it’s not true that almost no one gets in. FARMS is free and reduced meals and I think those kids should get the first priority.

It’s generally a good program, the kids do a ton outdoors. The biggest challenge is the lack of space for all children who want a spot, I wish the school focused more on hiring and retaining aftercare teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have experience with the Wonders extended day programs at your school? It has a bunch of options, before/after care plus drop-ins. We haven't used it yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous of all of you. We are at lamb. Aftercare is terrible and almost no one gets in after teacher preference and FARMS Preference. It costs 500 for before and aftercare and 440 for just aftercare. Glorified babysitting at best. Terrible!

We are at LAMB too. There are plenty of spots, albeit still a shortage. I have no idea what a FARMS preference is.

It is totally fine, the teachers are generally good and there are no screens. Apparently the snacks are good. Outdoor time everyday, and free dance, yoga, art. Can pay extra for soccer and music classes. It is $110/wk but my kids enjoy going.

There are not plenty of spots as 60% of the school was shut out due to mismanagement. We ended up pulling our kid out last year because there was no supervision, many altercations, and my child ended up injured. Right now we are struggling to handle pickup but I’m not going through that again. I do understand they let the main director go, so things might have changed this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous of all of you. We are at lamb. Aftercare is terrible and almost no one gets in after teacher preference and FARMS Preference. It costs 500 for before and aftercare and 440 for just aftercare. Glorified babysitting at best. Terrible!

We are at LAMB too. There are plenty of spots, albeit still a shortage. I have no idea what a FARMS preference is.

It is totally fine, the teachers are generally good and there are no screens. Apparently the snacks are good. Outdoor time everyday, and free dance, yoga, art. Can pay extra for soccer and music classes. It is $110/wk but my kids enjoy going.

I agree that it’s not true that almost no one gets in. FARMS is free and reduced meals and I think those kids should get the first priority.

It’s generally a good program, the kids do a ton outdoors. The biggest challenge is the lack of space for all children who want a spot, I wish the school focused more on hiring and retaining aftercare teachers.

I wish the school (LAMB) focused more on retaining teachers full stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Free at DCPS! There's some programming, like soccer once a week, and maybe dance/theatre, but mostly it's playground or free time, which i like. No coverage for days off, we don't have half days, and no coverage the day before a holiday (so like on Wednesday before Thanksgiving).

It isn’t free. Taxpayers are covering it. I think everyone no matter income should pay a certain % for after care even if it’s just $10 a week.

People are complaining but it amounts to what $5 an hour? Come on, would you want to watch 15-20 kids for $15 -$20 hour? I pay a high schooler $15 -$20/ hour to watch my ONE child! You get what you pay for (or don’t apparently).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free at DCPS! There's some programming, like soccer once a week, and maybe dance/theatre, but mostly it's playground or free time, which i like. No coverage for days off, we don't have half days, and no coverage the day before a holiday (so like on Wednesday before Thanksgiving).

It isn’t free. Taxpayers are covering it. I think everyone no matter income should pay a certain % for after care even if it’s just $10 a week.

People are complaining but it amounts to what $5 an hour? Come on, would you want to watch 15-20 kids for $15 -$20 hour? I pay a high schooler $15 -$20/ hour to watch my ONE child! You get what you pay for (or don’t apparently).

Do you think the DCPS teachers and staff who work aftercare at Title I schools who offer it free are not getting paid??

It appears the people complaining on this thread are the ones who do pay, not the ones who don't, because their extra money seems to amount to basically the same as the free programming run by staff their kids already know.

Taxpayers are paying for a lot of stuff they don't use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous of all of you. We are at lamb. Aftercare is terrible and almost no one gets in after teacher preference and FARMS Preference. It costs 500 for before and aftercare and 440 for just aftercare. Glorified babysitting at best. Terrible!

We are at LAMB too. There are plenty of spots, albeit still a shortage. I have no idea what a FARMS preference is.

It is totally fine, the teachers are generally good and there are no screens. Apparently the snacks are good. Outdoor time everyday, and free dance, yoga, art. Can pay extra for soccer and music classes. It is $110/wk but my kids enjoy going.

There are not plenty of spots as 60% of the school was shut out due to mismanagement. We ended up pulling our kid out last year because there was no supervision, many altercations, and my child ended up injured. Right now we are struggling to handle pickup but I’m not going through that again. I do understand they let the main director go, so things might have changed this year.

I'm sorry to hear this was your child's experience. My kid loves aftercare at LAMB. I haven't heard of any altercations in any of the primary classes, I don't have enough experience with the higher grades. While there is a waitlist, and I get not having guaranteed aftercare year after year is stressful, it's nowhere near 60% of the school - more like 15-20%. Still too high--I get it--but no need to grossly exaggerate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free at DCPS! There's some programming, like soccer once a week, and maybe dance/theatre, but mostly it's playground or free time, which i like. No coverage for days off, we don't have half days, and no coverage the day before a holiday (so like on Wednesday before Thanksgiving).

It isn’t free. Taxpayers are covering it. I think everyone no matter income should pay a certain % for after care even if it’s just $10 a week.

People are complaining but it amounts to what $5 an hour? Come on, would you want to watch 15-20 kids for $15 -$20 hour? I pay a high schooler $15 -$20/ hour to watch my ONE child! You get what you pay for (or don’t apparently).

Do you think the DCPS teachers and staff who work aftercare at Title I schools who offer it free are not getting paid??

It appears the people complaining on this thread are the ones who do pay, not the ones who don't, because their extra money seems to amount to basically the same as the free programming run by staff their kids already know.

Taxpayers are paying for a lot of stuff they don't use.

+1

I pay taxes so my taxpayer dollars go to free aftercare at Title 1 schools. But my tax dollars go to many services and programs I don’t use. My kid doesn’t ride a school bus. That doesn’t mean that kids who need school buses should have to pay extra. That’s how government services work in many circumstances.