The Afterschool Investments project has developed profiles for each state to provide a snapshot of the "state of afterschool," as well as an opportunity to compare afterschool activities across the country. This profile provides key data and descriptions of the afterschool landscape, which includes a range of out-of-school time programming that can occur before and after school, on weekends, and during summer months. It is designed to serve as a resource for policymakers, administrators, and providers.

• Quick Facts
• Statewide Initiatives
• Statewide Organizations
• Additional Resources
• Notes and Sources

Quick Facts

Demographics

For more demographic information, visit http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/statedata/statepro/index.html

Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)

• CCDF Administrative Overview

• Settings

Where CCDF-Subsidy school age-children are served:

• Uses of CCDF Targeted Funds and Quality Dollars for Afterschool

"Resource and referral and school-age" targeted funds:
Funds support the development and expansion of school-age child care services through training and technical assistance. Additionally, a designated Special Projects Manager will oversee a statewide network for afterschool programs and develops public-private partnerships that further invest in out-of-school time programs.

Other quality activities:
A statewide professional development center provides scholarships and support to school-age care providers. 

• Provider Reimbursement Rates

Tiered Reimbursement Rate System:
Licensed programs that are accredited by an approved organization are eligible to receive up to 5% above the established ceiling rate.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Care

Program Licensing and Accreditation Policies

21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC)

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Statewide Initiatives

• New Jersey Family Friendly Center Initiative. In 1998, the Office of Early Care and Education of the New Jersey Department of Human Services implemented the state-funded Family Friendly Centers to provide grants to afterschool programs that provide enrichment activities. For the 2003-04 school year, grants of $40,800 were awarded to 48 school districts or community-based organizations that operate a total of 64 different afterschool programs serving over 5,000 children. Grantees must collaborate with community organizations and agencies and must provide a 25 percent local funding match. The designated Family Friendly Centers use funds to offer a variety of educational, cultural, and recreational activities for children and social services for their families. Because of the family focus, parent involvement activities are a key component of the work of many centers. Many centers use the additional funds to meet the needs of their participants. Examples of this include an afterschool program that targets funds toward extra reading and math instruction for children who have behavioral problems and educational difficulties and a school district that used its funding to hire a substance abuse counselor and activity specialists for its free afterschool program.

  For more information, see http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/ sp&i/ffci.html.

• New Jersey School-Age Care Coalition (NJSACC) received $254,000 in CCDF quality dollars from the New Jersey Department Human Services in Fiscal Year 2003 to provide technical assistance to licensed out-of-school time programs. NJSACC provides technical assistance through consultation, site visits, and regional workshops around a range of program needs, including targeted assistance around provision of services for school-age children with special needs. In addition, NJSACC awards competitive sub-grants to afterschool programs for quality improvement activities. Finally, NJSACC dedicates funds toward statewide training conferences to educate and train school-age care providers.

  For more information, see http://www.njsacc.org.

• New Jersey Professional Development Center for Early Care and Education (NJPDC) supports the professional development and continuing education of educators across the state with funds from the New Jersey Department of Human Services. The Center, housed at Kean University, partners with the New Jersey Association of Child Care Resources and Referral Agencies (NJACCRRA) to offer a system of a professional development supports and services for all educators, including out-of-school time practitioners.

  For more information, see http://www.njpdc.org.

• 21st Century Community Learning Centers Advisory Committee. This committee, created and overseen by the New Jersey Department of Education, guided the transfer of administration of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program to the state and continues to provide leadership around program administration. The committee represents multiple state agencies, including the Departments of Education, Human Services, and Community Affairs; the Juvenile Justice Commission; and the Office of Law and Public Safety. In addition, representatives from the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network, the Parent Teacher Association, faith-based organizations, and the New Jersey School-age Care Association serve on the committee.

• New Jersey School Based Youth Services Program (SBYSP). This state-funded New Jersey Department of Human Services initiative integrates a range of services for adolescents in one location in or near schools. Serving over 35,000 students, SBYSP sites offer a range of services before- and afterschool and during weekends and summers. Sites can be found in 44 school districts in each of the state’s 21 counties. Each site develops a range of services that respond to local needs, including school-age care, pregnancy prevention, mental health and family counseling services, primary and preventative health services, employment services, learning support services, family involvement, recreation activities, and many others. The SBYSP model has been replicated in a number of states including Iowa, Kentucky, and California.

  For more information, see http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/sp&i/schoolbased.html.

• New Jersey After 3. In 2004, the governor announced a plan for a statewide afterschool program in his State of the State address. Under the plan, state funds would be matched by other public and private sources on a 1:1 basis, which would support programs that serve 20,000 youth in grades K-8 in Year 1, the 2004- 2005 school year. The New Jersey After-School Partnership acts as a non-profit corporation to raise private funds and re-grant public and private funds to program operators. Programs must be school based, partner with community-based organizations, and feature a low student to teacher ratio and a comprehensive mix of academic, recreational, and arts-related programs. New Jersey’s 2005 state budget appropriated $15 million for the New Jersey After 3 program.

  For more information, see www.njafter3.com

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Statewide Organizations

National AfterSchool Association Affiliate:

New Jersey School-Age Care Coalition
231 North Avenue West, PM363
Westfield, NJ 07090
Phone: 908-789-0259
Email: dianegenco@njsacc.org
Web: http://www.njsacc.org

Statewide Child Care Resource & Referral Network:

New Jersey Assocation of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
c/o Child Care Connection
1001 Spruce Street, Suite 201
Trenton, NJ 08638
Phone: 609-989-7770
Fax: 609-989-8060

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Additional Resources

State Child Care Administrators:
http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/statedata/dirs/display.cfm?title=ccdf

State TANF Contacts:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/tanf-dir.htm

21st Century Community Learning Centers Contacts:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/contacts.html

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Notes and Sources

Demographics

Total population: Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States and States, and for Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006, U.S. Census Bureau.

Number of children ages 5-12: Estimates of the Resident Population by Single-Year of Age and Sex for the United States and States: July 1, 2006, U.S. Census Bureau.

Percent of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch rate: Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

Percent of K-12 students in Title I "schoolwide" schools: Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. The federal Title I program provides funding to local school districts and schools with high percentages of poor children to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards. Schools enrolling at least 40 percent of students from poor families are eligible to use Title I funds for schoolwide programs that serve all children in the school.

Child Care and Development Fund

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is the largest federal funding source for child care. States receive a funding allocation determined by formula and have broad flexibility to design programs that provide child care subsidies for low-income children under the age of 13 and to enhance the quality of child care for all children. Federal CCDF funding consists of mandatory, matching, and discretionary funds. Federal law requires that states spend at least 4 percent of their CCDF funds as well as additional targeted funds on activities to improve the quality and availability of child care. CCDF administrative data in this and the following sections is from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Child Care Bureau, as reported by States, unless otherwise noted.

FFY06 state MOE plus match: In order to receive Federal matching funds, a state must expend Maintenance of Effort funds. Note that this does not capture actual expenditures, only the minimum required to draw down all available federal funds.

FFY06 Tribal CCDF Allocation: Federal CCDF Funds are awarded directly to Federally-recognized Indian Tribes.

FFY05 total quality expenditures: This data includes FY05 and prior year funds expended for quality from each of the CCDF funding streams (mandatory, matching, and discretionary) and expenditures under targeted funds for infant and toddler, school-age care and resource and referral. This figure provides information obtained from state financial reports submitted for FY05.

Uses of CCDF Targeted Funds and Quality Dollars for Afterschool: Portions of CCDF discretionary funds are targeted specifically for resource and referral and school-age child care activities as well as for quality expansion. (These funds are in addition to the required 4 percent minimum quality expenditure.)

Maximum rate for school-age category: Rate listed applies to center-based care; where rates vary by region or county, the rate for the most populated urban area is given.

Standardized monthly school-age rate: Monthly rate for a child, age 8, in care after school during the school year at a center in the most costly district for four hours per day, 20 days per month. Calculated (in the lowest tier of a tiered system) using information from the FY2006-2007. State CCDF Plan, including rate structures, as submitted to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Separate subsidy rates for part-time vs. full time and Tiered Reimbursement Rate Systems: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Care Bureau. Report of State Plans FY2006-2007.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Care

In addition to spending TANF funds directly on child care, a state may transfer up to 30 percent of its TANF grant to CCDF. Expenditures represent TANF funds spent in FY05 that were awarded in FY05 and prior years. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Program Licensing and Accreditation Policies

States with separate school-age licensing standards and states with specialized requirements for child care centers serving school-age children: National Association for Regulatory Administration, 2005 Child Care Licensing Study, available at http://www.nara.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=104.

Ratio of children to adults in school-age setting: Data from the National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC), available at: http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov.

Number of NAA-accredited programs: Data from the National AfterSchool Association, March 2007, available at: http://www.naaweb.org.

21st Century Community Learning Centers

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 converted the 21st Century Community Learning Centers’ authority to a state formula grant. In past years, the U.S. Department of Education made competitive awards directly to school districts. Under the reauthorized law, funds flow to states based on their share of Title I, Part A funds. States use their allocations to make competitive awards to eligible entities. Data from the U.S. Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Centers Office and the 21st CCLC Profile and Performance Information Collection System.

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The Child Care Bureau awarded a technical assistance contract to The Finance Project and their partner, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, for the Afterschool Investments project. The goals of the Afterschool Investments project include:

• Identifying ways that state and communities are using Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidy and quality dollars to support out-of-school time programs, and sharing these practices and approaches with other states;
• Identifying administrative and implementation issues related to CCDF investments in out-of-school time programs, and providing information and context (about barriers, problems, opportunities) as well as practical tools that will help CCDF administrators make decisions; and
• Identifying other major programs and sectors that are potential partners for CCDF in supporting out-of-school time programs and providing models, strategies, and tools for coordination with other programs and sectors.

Contact Us:

Email:
afterschool@financeproject.org

Web:
http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/afterschool/

The Finance Project
1401 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-587-1000
Web: www.financeproject.org

National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices
444 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-624-5300
Web: www.nga.org

The Afterschool Investments project’s State Profiles are designed to provide a comprehensive overview of noteworthy State and local initiatives across the country. Inclusion of an initiative in the Profiles does not represent an endorsement of a particular policy or practice.