Liv Ames for EdSource

First-grader Torin Kelley, left, faces off with Ansel Sanchez, 1st grade, in a game of checkers, equally Camille Rico, 1st grade, looks on in the Laytonville afterward-schoolhouse program.

When schoolhouse lets out, many children in rural communities must accept a long coach ride home, miles from their nearest neighbor. They don't play basketball with their friends, do fine art or science projects with the local community group or become help with their homework. Well-nigh get dwelling house to families with limited resource, struggling to make ends meet.

For many of these children, an after-school plan is their only opportunity to get help with homework, take function in extracurricular activities and socialize exterior of school. Simply school officials in rural districts say there is a shortage of programs in their communities because they struggle to provide transportation, find qualified staff and enroll enough students to generate acceptable funding. And unlike more populated areas, there often are no other organizations to plow to for help.

"There're no local foundations, community-based organizations with expertise or funds for youth services from parcel taxes," said Jason Riggs, the region lead for the California Section of Education in Mendocino and four other Northern California counties for the land Afterwards School Pedagogy & Condom Program and the federal 21st Century Community Learning Center programme. There are also fewer businesses that can donate, he said.

Research has shown that expanded learning programs later school and in the summer have helped close both accomplishment and opportunity gaps betwixt low-income children and their middle-grade peers. Subsequently-school programs are also often places where children practice social skills. In rural areas, they may exist the only gamble children have to develop friendships outside of the structured schoolhouse day.

Potter Valley 1st and 2nd graders walk from their school to the community center for their after-school program on a drizzly day in December.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Potter Valley 1st- and 2nd-graders walk from their school to the community center for their later-school plan on a drizzly 24-hour interval in December.

"We don't have neighborhoods that kids can play in," said Sheri Burris, who is in charge of the later-school program for Potter Valley Customs Unified in Mendocino County, where about three-quarters of the 259 children in the district authorize for free and reduced-price meals, one measure of poverty.

"A lot of people live over the loma where the old mill used to be," Burris said. "Their closest neighbour might be three or four miles away."

Gilberto Martinez, 8, who participates in the Potter Valley subsequently-school program, said that he does not live near his friends.

"If I were at home, I would go to slumber subsequently doing my homework," Gilberto said. "Here I exercise homework with my friends and have fun."

De Funk, later-school programme managing director in Modoc County, said expanded learning programs also provide a rubber identify with caring adults for children who witness violence or drug and alcohol abuse in their homes. In addition, the programs help students academically, she said, because some parents don't accept the educational background needed to assistance with homework, specially with the new curriculum based on Common Core state standards.

"We don't have neighborhoods that kids can play in," said Sheri Burris, who is in charge of the later-school plan for Potter Valley Customs Unified in Mendocino County. "A lot of people live over the hill where the old mill used to exist. Their closest neighbor might be iii or four miles away."

XXXX, X grade, works on a math problem in Potter Valley's after-school program.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Showtime-grader Maci Gamble works on a math problem in Potter Valley's after-school program.

At Laytonville Unified in Mendocino County, where 71 percent of the 410 students are eligible for free meals, the first hour of the after-schoolhouse program is focused on homework. Colleen Cabanillas, who used to teach at the district's continuation high school, said some students there were so credit deficient they couldn't graduate. She started the afterward-school plan to make certain the district'due south elementary and middle school students had a solid foundation when they entered high school, she said.

Simply the Laytonville programme does a lot more than provide bookish support, acting equally a hub for a variety of activities, such equally music lessons, tutoring, soccer and dance, many offered through the nearby Healthy Showtime state program. Students cheque into the after-school program and so walk to the other activities, located nearby. After their classes or soccer practice, they come back to the afterwards-school program until their parents can option them up.

Sarah Shelley lives on a remote ranch with her three children, a kindergartner, 5th-grader and high school junior. The children get out of schoolhouse at different times, ranging from 12:30 p.yard. to 3:thirty p.m. The younger two, both girls, participate in dance. The older male child plays soccer.

If it weren't for the afterwards-school program, Shelley said, she and her children would exist spending hours in town with nix to do, waiting for one or another child to complete an activity because the schoolhouse is too far away to render home in between activities.

"Without this programme, information technology would be then hard for them to do extra things," Shelley said.

Fourth-grader Aaron Vossler gets help with his art project from Colleen Cabanillas, who started the after-school program in Laytonville.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Fourth-grader Aaron Vossler gets aid with his art project from Colleen Cabanillas, who started the afterwards-school plan in Laytonville.

Parents are expected to selection upwardly their children after the Laytonville program ends, but Cabanillas drives two girls home each day then they can participate, she said.

Providing adequate transportation for the students is frequently the biggest obstacle, plan providers say. Districts take enough funding to provide a coach home after school merely null more. Parents often lack a auto or plenty coin for gasoline to brand the long trip to town to option up their children. And walking domicile, even for students who alive nearby, is typically out of the question.

"Nosotros don't take sidewalks, and nosotros don't have lighting," said Bessie Glossenger, kid and youth development manager for the Mendocino County Office of Didactics. "We have winding roads with no sides to them, no lane painted, or the only road abode is Highway 1 or Interstate 101."

The Legislature recently passed Senate Bill 1221, introduced by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, which is expected to offer some relief to programs that qualify, providing upwardly to $15,000 a year for transportation. But the funds won't be available until the 2016-17 school year.

In addition to transportation problems, the most remote or "frontier" programs accept trouble finding qualified staff, said Beth Chaton, program coordinator for later on-school programs at the Humboldt County Office of Education.

Subsequently-school employees oft hold more than one job, typically working as instructional aides during the day and sometimes driving students dwelling house after the program ends. At one bespeak at Bridgeville Simple school district, which serves 42 students, the superintendent/principal also acted as the maintenance person, motorcoach driver and after-schoolhouse program director, Chaton said.

"If we lose staff, it'due south difficult to supercede them," she said.

Replacing students can besides be a problem. In her county, lumber mills were the master source of jobs. But many take close down or are cut back on employees, causing families to move when a parent finds some other task. If one more than family moves out, it can hateful in that location won't exist enough students to generate the funding needed for an afterwards-school plan, Chaton said.

A modest rural afterward-school program, with 1 employee, can cost nigh $20,000 a yr. The land requires after-school programs to operate a minimum of 15 hours per week and remain open up until half-dozen p.grand. on every regular school 24-hour interval.

"Some of our small schools may take 10 to 20 students," Chaton said. "We have a number of programs that have ane staff member, and they can't fifty-fifty take a bathroom suspension because in that location is nobody to be with the students."

Allyson Harris, program director for after-schoolhouse programs for the Shasta County Office of Education, said that Platina Elementary School, about two hours from Redding, has a program that receives $13,500 for its thirteen students, of which 10 qualify for free and reduced-price meals.

"It'south quite a claiming to keep the doors open up," Harris said, adding that the schoolhouse'south general fund is supplementing the program. The later-school teacher is the autobus driver, and school employees who live nearby are on call in example the teacher has an emergency.

Part of Senate Nib 1221 that will accept effect in the 2015-16 school twelvemonth will assist small programs like Platina's by raising the minimum funding to $27,000. Currently, a couple of the smallest programs receive just over $4,000. Altogether, 26 programs get less than $27,000.

In Platina, the programme has survived with limited funds because the community is invested in it, Harris said. "They know information technology is the but resource for their children."

Commitment from community members is key to making many rural programs work well for students, after-schoolhouse providers say.

In Surprise Valley in Modoc Canton, well-educated staff, with bachelor'south and master's degrees, have been with the after-school program for many years, Funk said.

"The staff are committed to staying and making the community a ameliorate identify," she said. "They have family in the valley."

Hunter Bassler, 6th grade, and Preston Wheeler, 6th grade, are engrossed in a chess game at Laytonville's after-school program.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Sixth-graders Hunter Bassler and Preston Wheeler are engrossed in a chess game at Laytonville's later-schoolhouse programme.

At the Laytonville program on a rainy day before Christmas, students were able to make ornaments out of Sculpey clay because Cabanillas had brought a toaster oven from home to broil them in.

The room was awash in color and activity, with shelves total of books and lath games, many donated by community members. Children played checkers or chess, or sprawled on two blackness beanbag chairs the size of modest couches, reading. Large tins held art supplies, such every bit buttons and painted Popsicle sticks.

Olivia Mitchell, 12, lives on the nearby Cahto Reservation with her sister, Kaya, 8.

"Math is hard to learn; it helps to come here," said Olivia, a budding artist who says she appreciates the multifariousness of art supplies. "I really similar this identify. If I were home, I would exist bored, watching Boob tube or getting ready for bed."

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