What role do out-of-school time providers play in urban school systems in a post-COVID context?

July 22, 2024

This MERC and ICRE research and policy brief was produced in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond and explores the role of out-of-school time providers in urban school systems since the onset of COVID-19

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This research and policy brief by the Institute for Collaborative Research and Evaluation and the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Richmond focuses on the role of out-of-school time (OST) providers in urban school settings in a post COVID-19 context. It is structured to explore the following questions: 1) What are out-of-school time providers and what role do they play in urban school contexts? 2) What policies guide out-of-school time programming at the federal, state, and division level? 3) How have trends and outcomes related to out-of-school time programming changed relative to the onset of COVID-19? 4) What does out-of-school time programming look like in urban school systems in a post-COVID context? The brief concludes with a series of key takeaways and recommendations.

Read the Brief