Inside Report for November 5, 2009

• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 5, 2009 - Page: 9B

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Imagine a school that provides not only after-school programs, but services for parents. Imagine a school that’s open on weekends and year-round for special programs for the community.

Such public schools are called community schools, and there’s a movement afoot — including possible federal and state funding — to provide such programs across the country.

In Louisiana, state officials and school administrators say there’s a definite need for more after-school programming to reach schoolchildren who are on their own when they return home in the afternoons.

Of the 650,000 children enrolled in public schools in Louisiana, 25,000 are served through federally funded after-school programs administered through the state Department of Education, said Kartina Roberts, the agency’s section leader of after-school programs.

“We have a lot of programs,” Roberts said, “but compared to the population as a whole, we still have a need” for more.

Roberts said one of the state’s largest federally funded programs, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, provides about $23 million in grants to school districts.

The East Baton Rouge Parish school system receives about $1.5 million of those funds through December 2010, said Jannette Davis, parish school system coordinator of the Education Excellence Fund.

Davis said 21st Century Community Learning Centers serve about 500 school system children with after-school programming.

About 5,000 school children are served by other federal and community after-school programs, she said.

More after-school programs are needed, and many are lacking support, said Deborah Jones, program director, YWCA Greater Baton Rouge/Center for Family Empowerment.

YWCA is a key sponsor for the Metro Baton Rouge Lights on After-school Project, which informs the community about the need for such programs, Jones said.

“The public funding they (schools) receive is often not enough to cover all the costs of running an effective after-school program, especially when it comes to providing transportation,” said Jones.

 Both parents typically work, and often there is no adult in the house when the children arrive home, Jones said.