TASC's efforts to build public support for universal, high-quality after-school programming have fundamentally changed the landscape of after-school in NYC and across the country.
In New York, both city and state government have established dedicated funding streams for after-school services. Standards for the quality of after-school programs are far more prominent and wide-ranging than they were in 1998, when TASC was established.
TASC is the administrative lead partner in the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems, an organization of six citywide after-school intermediaries dedicated to making after-school part of the system of essential services that support children and youth. CBASS is working to change policy to integrate after-school into broader education reform efforts and increase resources devoted to after-school programs.
- In 1999, New York State created its first dedicated funding stream for after-school services, the Advantage AfterSchool Program. Conceived of and promoted by TASC, and based on its program model, the program provides $28.2 million annually to local community-based organizations for after-school services that demonstrate a strong partnership between community-based organizations, schools, youth and families;
- Beginning in 2003, TASC played a key role in the formation of New York City’s Out-of-School-Time initiative, the largest in any city in the nation, which institutionalized many core elements of the TASC program model. The OST program initially was funded as a three-year, $200 million initiative, which supports more than 550 programs free of cost, in every neighborhood across the city. Focusing largely on elements of the TASC framework— most programs are based in schools, operated by CBOs, offer open enrollment and encourage daily attendance and connection to the school day—the OST initiative is a confirmation of the success of TASC’s program model, and a fulfillment of its core mission to make after-school a public responsibility;
- TASC successfully advocated with the New York City Council to secure an annual discretionary grant (currently $3.8 million) to provide after-school services to programs that were not able to obtain OST funds, thereby expanding access to communities across the city that may not otherwise be eligible for public after-school dollars.
- TASC was the model for New Jersey After 3 (NJA3), a statewide after-school organization dedicated to expanding and improving after-school opportunities for New Jersey students in grades K-8. TASC provided technical assistance during the start-up of the program, which served approximately 13,500 children in programs serving 95 schools throughout the state in the 2006-07 school year.
- TASC was successful in advocating with New York State to apply School-Aged Child Care funds to support after-school programs. New York City now also devotes child care funds to support these services to kids and working families.
