After care programs at DCPS?

[Anonymous]

What does after care really look like?
We've been going to many open houses for PK3 and asked questions about aftercare. We get a lot of vague answers like "play-based" "classroom" "outdoor time".
We want to hear more details about what one's kid is actually doing during after care from 3-6pm - since it is actually 1/3rd of their day.
I know a lot of the charter schools have many interesting classes (yoga, dance, games, language clubs, etc), but what about the DCPS run aftercare programs? I'd love to hear from parents currently enrolled at DCPS -- what are the PK3/PK4 kids actually doing for 3 hours?
Also, do any parents have suggestions/success stories for adding supplemental after care progrms/activities to DCPS schools?
Thanks for any insights and details!

[Anonymous]

It totally depends on the school. What school?

[Anonymous]

I love that my little ones have free play during aftercare. They've been following directions in school all day, and it's a great opportunity for them to have some space and time to just play with their friends on their terms at the end of the day. Don't discount the importance of that, especially for kids K and younger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love that my little ones have free play during aftercare. They've been following directions in school all day, and it's a great opportunity for them to have some space and time to just play with their friends on their terms at the end of the day. Don't discount the importance of that, especially for kids K and younger.

As long as non-programmed time is free play, I'm happy. Free play is great and important. I'm less happy when I hear that bad weather leads to movies in aftercare (which I heard from parents at a once-HR-but-less-so-now-CS).

[Anonymous]

We are at H.D. Cooke, which has a DCPS-run aftercare program that is free for all (regardless of income). We have been happy with it. We recently had the aftercare coordinator for the school speak at a PTO meeting, so it's fresh in my mind. Here is what I remember from the meeting.

- kids are all separated by grade. So, my PK3 student is only with other PK3 students.
- the daytime teachers rotate into the aftercare slots. So, my daughter's assistant teacher is one of the aftercare teachers two days a week; one of the PK3 lead teachers does aftercare once a week; and some of the PK4 teachers also lead the PK3 aftercare. The same teachers regularly cover aftercare classes; therefore, although the teachers rotate, they get to know the students well.
- On four days, there are specials for PK kids: art one day, library another day, and jumpstart (an Americorps program with volunteers from Howard) twice a week. (I'm 90% sure that is the name of the program--I don't have my notes in front of me.)
- The older grades have more options for after care--going to the Sitar center, swim classes at the Reed pool, girls and boys on the run, soccer, and the like. The older kids also have "academic power hour" where they complete their homework.
- The typical day for PK kids looks like this:
- School lets out at 3:15. From 3:15 to 3:30 the kids are gathering in their classrooms, attendance is taken, etc.
- 3:30 is snack time, though they call it supper, and kids go into centers when they are done eating. Snack is generally a sandwich, a piece of fruit, and milk--pretty substantial.
- From 4-5 they have the special for that day (jumpstart, art, library). If there is no special then they go outside or to the gym.
- From 5-6 it's either outside time, gym time, or centers time. My daughter loves centers (where they can choose things like blocks, books, dramatic play, sand table, water table, etc.) and I'm pretty sure they do them at some point every day in aftercare, especially when the weather is crummy.

We've been really happy with it. We were in a charter school earlier this year with really expensive after care, and we think the quality of the DCPS-run aftercare is much higher at a much better price (free!). Most important, my daughter tells me how much she likes the aftercare.

Happy to answer any specific questions you may have.

[Anonymous]

My 4yo is in DCPS aftercare. There is a schedule and what they do depends on the day. Usually, they have a snack from 3:30-4pm, then a "special" - depending on what specials teacher is working aftercare that day - and then they have classroom time which usually means centers. The aftercare supervisors are the classroom teachers and/or aides, so it's possible that your child may spend aftercare with his or her regular teacher, or at least someone who is familiar. When it's warm enough, they often to go the playground instead of doing centers, or do 20 minutes on the playground and 20 minutes in centers, or whatever.

I will say on the subject of movies that we have talked about that a lot recently at our school and what we have been told is that on Fridays, because there is no homework hour, the block usually spent on homework is a free period/movie time. This translates down to early childhood too, even though they don't have homework, but it's for less than an hour, at the very end of aftercare, at the end of the week. It's not every day, or for the whole 3:30-6pm block on Friday.

[Anonymous]

original poster here --we've heard from several schools - eg. Bruce Monroe, Barnard, Harriet Tubman (I think and a few others) that say their after-care is DCPS run. (and not by an outside vendor). While I value lots of unstructured creative and free time, 3 hours seems like a long stretch and I worry that if there are not some structured play activities or fun classes, that my kid would eventually get bored or just be sitting around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at H.D. Cooke, which has a DCPS-run aftercare program that is free for all (regardless of income). We have been happy with it. We recently had the aftercare coordinator for the school speak at a PTO meeting, so it's fresh in my mind. Here is what I remember from the meeting.

- kids are all separated by grade. So, my PK3 student is only with other PK3 students.
- the daytime teachers rotate into the aftercare slots. So, my daughter's assistant teacher is one of the aftercare teachers two days a week; one of the PK3 lead teachers does aftercare once a week; and some of the PK4 teachers also lead the PK3 aftercare. The same teachers regularly cover aftercare classes; therefore, although the teachers rotate, they get to know the students well.
- On four days, there are specials for PK kids: art one day, library another day, and jumpstart (an Americorps program with volunteers from Howard) twice a week. (I'm 90% sure that is the name of the program--I don't have my notes in front of me.)
- The older grades have more options for after care--going to the Sitar center, swim classes at the Reed pool, girls and boys on the run, soccer, and the like. The older kids also have "academic power hour" where they complete their homework.
- The typical day for PK kids looks like this:
- School lets out at 3:15. From 3:15 to 3:30 the kids are gathering in their classrooms, attendance is taken, etc.
- 3:30 is snack time, though they call it supper, and kids go into centers when they are done eating. Snack is generally a sandwich, a piece of fruit, and milk--pretty substantial.
- From 4-5 they have the special for that day (jumpstart, art, library). If there is no special then they go outside or to the gym.
- From 5-6 it's either outside time, gym time, or centers time. My daughter loves centers (where they can choose things like blocks, books, dramatic play, sand table, water table, etc.) and I'm pretty sure they do them at some point every day in aftercare, especially when the weather is crummy.

We've been really happy with it. We were in a charter school earlier this year with really expensive after care, and we think the quality of the DCPS-run aftercare is much higher at a much better price (free!). Most important, my daughter tells me how much she likes the aftercare.

Happy to answer any specific questions you may have.

Thank you! This is very helpful and informative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:original poster here --we've heard from several schools - eg. Bruce Monroe, Barnard, Harriet Tubman (I think and a few others) that say their after-care is DCPS run. (and not by an outside vendor). While I value lots of unstructured creative and free time, 3 hours seems like a long stretch and I worry that if there are not some structured play activities or fun classes, that my kid would eventually get bored or just be sitting around.

I'm the poster from 14:19. I was talking about the aftercare at Cooke as well.

I think it really depends on the school and how they have chosen to structure their aftercare. Our school has an aftercare coordinator. There is a schedule that is posted every week. There are opportunities for kids at various grade levels to participate in enrichment opportunities with outside organizations. One thing that we have definitely struggled with is getting enrichment opportunities for younger children. That said, even without the outside organizations, I don't think your kid will get "bored" or just sit around, unless they are in an area where there is nothing interesting to do. My observation has been that my daughter is excited about classroom time because she's not in her regular classroom. So there are new materials, new books, new kids to play with, etc.

I don't know about the aftercare at BMPV, Tubman or Barnard, but you might try asking these schools if there is an aftercare coordinator you could speak with about the structure. I have tried to encourage our school to talk about aftercare at open houses very specifically because I've observed that that is something that most parents really want to know and also that schools tend to give vague answers.

[Anonymous]

I am PP with the long post from before. Meant to add, when we were applying last year, no one at a DCPS could tell us anything about the after care program. I know what I do because we asked the school's after-care coordinator to come and talk to the PTO. I did this because I wanted to know what my daughter was doing, but also because the question kept coming up in open houses and I wanted to be able to answer it.

So it's probably the case, OP, that the parents at the open houses just don't know what happens in after care, hence the vague responses. As the other Cooke poster mentioned, there is a weekly schedule, but it is really hard to read (it's meant to schedule teachers into different blocks, not for parents to read). So, I agree with PP, if you can talk to the aftercare coordinator at the school, you'll probably get much better answers than asking people at open houses (unless you happen to come to a Cooke open house!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:original poster here --we've heard from several schools - eg. Bruce Monroe, Barnard, Harriet Tubman (I think and a few others) that say their after-care is DCPS run. (and not by an outside vendor). While I value lots of unstructured creative and free time, 3 hours seems like a long stretch and I worry that if there are not some structured play activities or fun classes, that my kid would eventually get bored or just be sitting around.

That's definitely not how DCPS runs their afterschool care at Title I schools. They generally work with many partners to offer a host of age-appropriate activities that typically follow an hour of homework help/power hour or whatever. That said, and as someone else stated, how well that's put into practice depends on the skill set and savvy of the coordinator. And how well children are cared for depends on the caregivers. Some coordinators - often with the push of principals towards a full-day school model - succeed in teachers playing a central role. Those programs are often very good. Same goes if competent and well-intentioned para-professionals from that school get on board. If the program is mainly staffed by not so competent para-professionals or highly volatile outside workforce, people looking for odd jobs and such, then it may be a little iffier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:original poster here --we've heard from several schools - eg. Bruce Monroe, Barnard, Harriet Tubman (I think and a few others) that say their after-care is DCPS run. (and not by an outside vendor). While I value lots of unstructured creative and free time, 3 hours seems like a long stretch and I worry that if there are not some structured play activities or fun classes, that my kid would eventually get bored or just be sitting around.

That's definitely not how DCPS runs their afterschool care at Title I schools. They generally work with many partners to offer a host of age-appropriate activities that typically follow an hour of homework help/power hour or whatever. That said, and as someone else stated, how well that's put into practice depends on the skill set and savvy of the coordinator. And how well children are cared for depends on the caregivers. Some coordinators - often with the push of principals towards a full-day school model - succeed in teachers playing a central role. Those programs are often very good. Same goes if competent and well-intentioned para-professionals from that school get on board. If the program is mainly staffed by not so competent para-professionals or highly volatile outside workforce, people looking for odd jobs and such, then it may be a little iffier.

Power Hour is only for the older children at our school. The OP's description sounds accurate for preschool, but the children aren't bored.

[Anonymous]

Our school has multiple options for aftercare. There's DC Parks & Rec aftercare (which has limited spots); there's an outside vendor (which has plenty of open slots and allows drop-in aftercare on a daily basis); and there are PTA sponsored aftercare classes.

My kid (PK4) does a combination of classes and the outside vendor aftercare. In the aftercare, they play. It's pretty much 2.5 hours of free play. In the summer, they run around on the playground. In bad weather, they are indoors and have toys like lego or crayons or toy cars to play with.

The supplemental programs are coordinated by the PTA. They are funded from PTA dues and/or fees for some of the programs.