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Challenges - PA and IN - transportation is an ongoing difficulty experienced throughout the state along with providing childcare.

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Put more messaging out about the impact of attendance, non-punitive and intentional discussions around any barriers to attendance.

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School staff stopping by and affirming the space can encourage attendance, and vice versus, when the OST staff stop by the lunch room and such. Allowing kids to see the adults communicating and interacting and care about the other space matters.

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How are OST staff hired? Are they intentionally from the school community? Does employing family and community members have dividends?

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How are schools strategically partnering with the families of the students who are the most chronically absent?

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Absenteeism is a buzzing word. Bringing people together around the issue. There were efforts to address pre-covid.

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In Oregon, we are working on increased partnerships between health and education sectors. Are other states (like Texas) working on this?

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Mississippi: National Dropout prevention center - provide support Jan - July. They did a statewide conference that spoke to student/parent/teacher engagement. There was also regional support. Districts who were doing it 'right' were on a panel to share what they were doing. There is also a toolkit related to chronic absenteeism. September has become Attendance Awareness Month!

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Chronic Absenteeism | The Mississippi Department of Education

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Leveraging the use of SNAP food/meal programs, food education, nutrition education. Culinary arts. Leveraging meal programs. Community school model used to integrate with expanded learning programs.

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MN stages of development tool showing what it looks like to grow from lack of community practices to a partnership school. Aligned with Dr. Mapp's family engagement work.

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Really like the TX graphic. Would like to see that across our state agencies. We are all doing similar things, may not be aware. Resource alignment and awareness. -- MO, attempting to create efforts that focus on collaboration.

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Incentivized attendance, distributed knowledge around the impact of absences, created threshold for contacting families, Collaborated with community and neighboring schools for interventions. Outcome: academic achievement improved across the board

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How are transportation challenges addressed in rural areas or are there transportation challenges in general?

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District level - make summer as fun as possible.

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How are funds distributed to rural districts?

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Illinois - One regional educational agency noted that many chronically absent families are completely unaware of programs and supports. Knocking on doors has been eye-opening for families to know about the programs.

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IN - track data through a system, look at academic growth as well as attendance, continuing to add data to help LEAs track data

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NY - family community engagement workshops with my brothers keepers (translation services, homework completion needs, reading score awareness, ELA knowledge); supporting parents to support students

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MN - state investment in OST; most success to boost attendance and engagement are schools that braid OST programs with academics; having balanced OST programs that touch on academics and enrichment; braiding programs together

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Virginia - For many community schools, many have chronic absenteeism as a metric of success.

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PA - data system keeping records and outcomes. Attendance is tracked and retention in the program. We look to see if improvements are being made. The platforms vary with the different systems

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Illinois - There is a focus on career and technical education training, often for students that want to get right into the workforce.

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Student experiencing homelessness-use OST experience to engage these students as a promising practice.

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Aligning OST programming with school day- curriculum, themes, etc.

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Utah - Every student has to pick a club and every teacher has to be part of a club. This isn't an OST-specific program. However, it encourages community.

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BIE - infusing the Culturally relevance into our programs. Infusing culture and langauge of the tribes is where we get the higher numbers of attendance.

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Family engagement programming

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MO- seeing things at district and school levels seems to be where there is the most momentum.

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PA - Feeding kids and families has also been helpful

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NY - statewide community and family engagement grant; my brother's keeper project connection; a number of projects use enrichment trips (HBCUs, college tours, career readiness, networking public speaking); annual symposium every may where folks come for workshops, professional development for educators to secure strategies and best practices

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This study has been influential in PA furthering the discussion around OST with policymakers and other stakeholders

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New Study: $6.69 Returned for every dollar spent on afterschool programs in PA - Pittsburgh Parent

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Return on Investment of Afterschool Programs in Pennsylvania concludes that, for every dollar invested in an afterschool program in the Commonwealth, $6.69 is returned in potential benefits associated with reducing high school dropouts, teen pregnancy, substance abuse disorder, crime and delinquency.

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Tracking data from students that do and do not participate tells a better picture of what goes on.

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Maine- coordinated programs at the local level I am seeing work well such as, "Time With Teachers". Worked on integrating pre-k kids in second half of school year. -- Students were allowed to choose interest based activities. Fun activities + building relationships with teachers.

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What I have noticed is that during COVID distancing that schools that had full services already in place had stronger connection with students and families compared to schools without the strong family and community connection. Schools that have been focused on whole school have stronger relationships

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Virginia - When we provide grants to schools, we talk about collaborative districts. In Texas, generating collaborative relationships through grant-making.

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I love the guidance of having grantees write SMART goals for each overall goal. This makes the program very intentional

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Using Attendance Works in Mississippi

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How was the Activity Component - Student Interest-Based Enrichment data collected? Is is state wide or based on the individual programs and student surveys?

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Huge state investment in expanded learning programs to integrate to instructional alignment, safe and supportive environments-similar in quality focus. Most districts have expanded learning opportunities. VERY much similar to Texas model.

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Amount of feedback being gathered was interesting and a good mechanism to create buy-in.

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IN -Alternative education works with wrap-around supports. We are seeing the need and beginning to fill it with the support of the community.

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Pertaining to the stats at the end of the presentation-- How many schools are involved in the after-school program? What percentage was that population?

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Utah - Carryover from summer to school, seeing states incorporate year-round programming

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I may have missed this, but it would be great to see the CA data for school districts where ACE and the other programs are awarded.

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Oregon - grants focused on brining in community partners for before and after school care; target districts in rural community; using community partners to staff before and after school spaces to respond to family needs

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What have the challenges been implementing the OST program?

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Differences in how districts are able to carry out 21st CCLC based on urban vs. rural. Tailoring Tier 1 instruction for rural.

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Moved on from complience to looking at the health of the program. I think about it as branding.

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What community partners are involved in the program and how involved are they?

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Family engagement and home visits

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CA- Interested to learn more about how we can share with you our latest factsheet on chronic absenteeism. - OST- one of the main pillars is learning environments.

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IN - noticed that there is increase in grants for community partners, lots of improvements due to offering more opportunities for internships and work-based learning. Gives students a reason to want to come to school. Bridges the gap, we all have to work together

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How is the Texas ACE program funded, is it solely from 21st Century Grant or a combination of SEA administration funds?

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BIE--we need a cross collaborative to look at data points to look at how the schools are doing and look at their attendance data. I liked the guidebook. Appreciated the resources.

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1 thing that stood out-local steering committee to sustain buy in and sustainability and to have the right partners in place to support student engagement.

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The 4 parts and how they are intertwined and how each one is still individually important. Each element provided its own way to success.

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MO- We are slightly more siloed, enjoy learning from other collaborative models. - To have someone at the state level and district level who is required to manage is huge.

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PA -Familiar with some of the information, the programs are a great way to supplement what's in the schools A great way to celebrate students and help them know that they belong. Bringing links together for support system, whole student approach

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what messaging do you use around high impact tutoring? Is there protocol to determine which students qualify for those services? Do you work with the school staff, etc?

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Questions about definitions. I'm curious about the ways families and community involvement are defined. Is family engagement participation in programs or is it in decision making?

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21st CCLCs are great to leverage for attendance. Very interesting to see Community Schools and 21st CCLCs work together. One program might not have enough funding, but several programs together might be more "bang for your buck"

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2 things

Alignment to the school day

engagement with the parents

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Maine- Launching "First 10 Schools" pilot. - There are things that stood out, the importance of a funded position to coordinate/organize. Also, the state level steering committee. We also have a state level team, looking to learn from others.

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OST alignment with core days -- intentional to build

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Quality Standards

The Quality Standards are not intended to serve as a compliance tool, but as the following:

A framework of clear expectations for all stakeholders.

A guide to inform the Expanded Learning Division's decision-making, e.g., technical assistance decisions, language in requests for application, and policy development.

A guide for program providers to assess their own programs in order to help determine what they are doing well and what needs improvement.

A guide for parents and youth to identify quality programming.

A guide for school principals and district superintendents to reinforce and advance key priorities.

A complement to other standards in the State of California focused on quality improvement, e.g., Learning in After School and Summer, Quality Self-Assessment Tool, Quality Self-Assessment Rubric, Center for Youth Program Quality, etc.

Expanded Learning in California-Grantee Orientation Virtual Workshops

In collaboration with the California Department of Education's Expanded Learning Division, the California Afterschool Network has created a series of Grantee Orientation Virtual Workshops to help Expanded Learning grantee staff strengthen their knowledge and understanding in the following content areas:

How to use the Grantee Orientation Videos and Activities

In conjunction with the Grantee Orientation videos, CAN has created activity outlines and materials for Expanded Learning professionals to use to facilitate internal training and professional development with their staff. The videos can be used for program quality improvement planning, watched over a series of weeks, used as part of an on-boarding process or even as a refresher at the end of the year!

For additional assistance please contact your System of Support for Expanded Learning for support.

Compliance and CQI

In accordance with California Education Code ( EC)sections 8422(a)(2) and 8484(a)(2), all state and federally-funded expanded learning programs serving elementary, middle and high school in California shall engage in a data-driven program quality improvement process. This requirement applies to programs funded through both the After School Education and Safety (ASES), 21 st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC), and 21 st Century High School After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETs) grants.

The EC Section 8484(a) further specifies that the department may consider these outcomes when determining eligibility for grant renewal:

A. To demonstrate program effectiveness, grantees shall submit, using the unique statewide pupil identifiers, for participating pupils who are unduplicated pupils, both of he following:

1. School-day attendance on an annual basis.

2. Program attendance on a semiannual basis.

B. Programs shall submit evidence of a data-driven program quality improvement process that is based on the department's guidance on program quality standards.

It is noteworthy that program attendance EC Section 8484(a)(1)(B) is cited as a key measure of a program's effectiveness. In fact, poor and sporadic attendance is often a reflection of more systemic problems in a program's operations. Thus, rather than focus on attendance in isolation, the law makes a direct link between attendance and program quality and requires that programs engage in a data-driven program quality improvement process.

In addition to submitting data through the Annual Outcomes Based Data for Evaluation, grantees are also monitored on Continuous Quality Improvement through Federal Program Monitoring (FPM). To learn more, visit the FPM web page. Programs are required to retain documentation of a data-driven quality improvement process, including, but not limited to: the CQI plan, evidence of stakeholder engagement, evidence of data collected (i.e.-surveys, focus group results, etc.).

Point-of-Service Quality Standards in Action Videos

This series of six videos highlights our Quality Standards in Action. The purpose of these videos is to serve as a resource to support the implementation of the Quality Standards for Expanded Learning in California.

For additional resources, please visit the Expanded Learning Division Resources web page.

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The Quality Standards are not intended to serve as a compliance tool, but as the following: A framework of clear expectations for all stakeholders. A guide to inform the Expanded Learning Division's decision-making, e.g., technical assistance decisions, language in requests for application, and policy development.

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thoughtful grant administration

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Connecting with what my schools are doing and to what Texas is doing

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UT- Afterschool program seems like a great way to improve student attendance. The four component model is very helpful. Validated the model through the statewide evaluation

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Oregon - great to see the emphasis on summer and afterschool components; seeing how participation impacts students

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curious about the infrastructure (FTE etc of how ACE is operationalized) for TX State DEpt of Ed

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In California, we have 21st CCLC, but also huge state investment in Expanded Learning at about $5 billion dollars annually.

WestEd has completed a pre-Covid evaluation, showing that students who attend expanded learning have 17 percent better attendance.

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In what ways do Texas ACES grantees measure Family Engagement?

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What methods of sharing more information about the grant/grantees with stakeholders (community partners, etc.) do you find most effective in gaining traction?

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How large are the grants that fund this comprehensive scope of operations?