Why Should Delaware Care?
This year, two elementary schools within the Colonial School District started charging families for aftercare. It occurred just as the market for afterschool care became tight. Now, some families are still turning to organizations like the Police Athletic League for free childcare.
Months after two New Castle-area elementary schools began to charge for after-school care, some parents have opted to send their kids to a free community center run by the financially struggling Police Athletic League.
Last summer, Eisenberg and Southern elementary schools – both part of the Colonial School District – announced they would no longer provide free aftercare to families, citing the end of government grant funding that had supported the program.
The decision came a year after officials at Carrie Downie Elementary School had done the same.
In response, attendance at those schools’ aftercare programs fell off. For example, eight students enrolled in Eisenberg’s aftercare program this academic year, compared to 95 students enrolled during its highest point last year, according to the program provider.
Meanwhile, officials at the Police Athletic League – an organization that runs three community centers in New Castle County – said they have seen a flood of new kids attend their facilities following the start of the academic year.
Among those was Alexis Rich’s daughter, a fifth grader at Eisenberg Elementary.
Rich said “it was shocking” when she learned that she would have to pay $135 each week to keep her daughter at the school’s aftercare program. So, instead, she decided to bring her daughter to the Garfield Park center run by the Police Athletic League, or PAL.
“We’re just grateful for PAL,” she said.
A changing market
Colonial Superintendent Jeff Menzer told Spotlight Delaware that the district now charges for aftercare because of a “variety of grants not happening and grants ending.” He also noted that the supply of federal COVID-era funding has run out.
Separate from those funding streams, other federal dollars for after-school programs have also been in flux.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration froze about $1.4 billion that had been allocated for schools’ before-and-after-school programs, according to Education Week. The money was later released with a “new requirement for states to certify compliance with federal civil rights laws,” according to Education Week’s report.
The uncertainty occurred just as the larger market for afterschool care suffered from “economic strain and a lack of available spots,” according to a recent industry report from IBIS World.
While the Police Athletic League has filled some of the gaps in northern Delaware, it also has faced its own struggles.
Last summer, Spotlight Delaware reported that its executive director – former Delaware Speaker of the House Valerie Longhurst – resigned from the post after the nonprofit’s cash reserves had dwindled.
Then, in October, the PAL’s new chairman New Castle County’s police chief, Col. Jamie Leonard, told the New Castle County Council that the organization faces a criminal investigation, and an audit that could force it to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars it likely does not have.
Later during that meeting, the PAL’s executive director, New Castle County Police Lt. Angela Dolan said the organization has seen a large attendance increase at its Garfield Park location, which she attributed to the Colonial schools charging for aftercare programs.
Despite the turmoil at the organization, Dolan told the council that the nonprofit’s free youth programs are continuing for hundreds of kids during the new school year.
She also expressed dismay over what she feared could be the organization’s future.
“When you see these kids come in and love what they’re doing and what they’re being exposed to, it’s really hard to think that this could end,” Dolan said then.
Also among the parents sending a child to the PAL is Erica Smith, whose son attends Eisenberg Elementary School.
While she noted she moved her son to the PAL before his school began charging for its aftercare programs, she said the decision has now become permanent.
“The Garfield Park [center] is a lifesaver. This one here, it saves people money,” she said.
