With after-school programs facing tough financial times, after-school service providers and advocates came to Albany to testify at a hearing on the state budget on Wednesday, February 10 to remind legislators of what parents do while kids are in after-school programs: hold down jobs and contribute to the strength of the state’s economy. After-school programs are a critical support for parents in New York State’s workforce. Currently eight out of ten kids live in households where both parents work. And while approximately 400,000 K-12 students in New York State attend after-school programs, another 600,000 have no adult supervision after school. In tough economic times, families depend on public funding for after-school programs to keep children safe and supervised while parents are at work or searching for work. After-school programs also employ thousands of people across New York State. Proposed cuts to after-school programs will eliminate access to programs for more than 10,000 children, while up to 3,000 jobs may be lost in the after-school field. Advocates urged legislators to restore after-school funding to FY 10 levels approved in April of 2009, resulting in:

• $30.5 million to the Advantage After School Program through the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). The Governor’s budget proposal reduces Advantage by nearly $11 million, adding to the December cut of $2.4 million and resulting in a cut of 44% in one year. If this most recent cut occurs, nearly 9,000 kids will lose access to Advantage programs.
• $27.8 million for the Extended School Day/School Violence Prevention Program through the State Education Department (SED).

Advocates also urged legislators to:

• Restore Funding to the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) to $35 million so that 25,000 young people state-wide can continue to work and provide essential services in the communities where they live; and
• Support the Executive Budget recommendation to fund The Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention Program (YDDP) and Special Delinquency Prevention Program (SDPP), at $28,243,400, an increase of $784,567 from SFY 2009-10 and the Runaway Homeless and Youth Program at $4,711,600, an increase of $130,933 from SFY 2009-10.