21st Century Community Learning Centers
What it is: The 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program is the federal government’s principal after-school program investment. It awards grants to establish and run after-school programs that provide academic enrichment opportunities for elementary and secondary school students and their families and offer students youth development activities, counseling, art, music, recreation, technology, and character education programs. It was reauthorized in January 2002 as Title IV, Part B of the No Child Left Behind Act.
How it works: The U.S. Department of Education distributes money to state education agencies on a formula basis, and each state education agency awards 21st CCLC grants to local entities. School districts, local governments, and community groups are allowed to compete for grants.
Whom it serves: 21st CCLC serves elementary, middle, and high school students in predominantly low-income communities. 21st CCLC helps fund after-school programs for approximately 1.4 million children in 8,448 schools and other providers in 1,420 communities in all 50 states.
Why it’s important: In the hour after the school bell rings, violent juvenile crime soars and the prime time for juvenile crime begins. The peak hours for such crime are from 3:00 to 6:00 PM on school days. These are also the hours when children are most likely to become victims of crime, be in an automobile accident, smoke, drink alcohol, or use drugs. A recent poll found that 82% of voters agree that there should be some type of organized activity or safe place for children and teens to go after school every day that provides opportunities for them to learn, and two in three voters say that after school programs are an absolute necessity for their community.
After-school programs that connect children to caring adults and provide constructive activities during these critical hours are among our most powerful tools for preventing crime. For example, a study compared five housing projects without Boys & Girls Clubs to five receiving new clubs. At the beginning, drug activity and vandalism were the same. But by the time the study ended, the projects without the programs had 50 percent more vandalism and scored 37 percent worse on drug activity.
Overwhelming unmet need: Although 21st CCLC programs are available to all grade levels, elementary school students are the group most frequently targeted for services by the center. About half of centers serve elementary school students exclusively, and at least two thirds of all centers serve some elementary students. Only 20 percent of the centers exclusively target middle school students and only 5 percent of centers exclusively target high school students. Each year, thousands of grant applications are turned down due to lack of funding. Meanwhile, more than 14 million children still lack adult supervision after school.
Current funding level: Since being funded at $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2002, there have been no significant funding increases for 21st CCLC. In FY06, the program was cut back to $981 million, where it remained for FY07. For FY09, Congress provided an additional $50 million in funding (for a total of $1.131 billion)—far below the program's $2.5 billion authorization under the No Child Left Behind Act. For FY10, the Administration has proposed level funding.
Reauthorization and funding recommendation: 21st CCLC is expected to be reauthorized as part of the No Child Left Behind Act renewal. FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS recommends that Congress reauthorize and substantially increase funding for 21st CCLC in order to improve quality and expand access to this program, and direct substantial new funding toward programs serving at-risk middle and high school students who now experience the greatest unmet need.
For more information, please contact Nick Alexander at (202) 464-7014 or nalexander@fightcrime.org