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
• Notable Local 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 may be used by the Vermont Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to provide technical assistance for program managers with specialized background in school age care; contract for an annual School-Age Care conference; development of a Vermont School Age Care Network; provide mini-grants for school-age program expansion; to fund a staff member who coordinates services with the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program; $75,000 of General Funds to expand school-age capacity; and Partnering with the Vermont Out of School Time (VOOST) Network.

Other quality activities:
Data not available.

• Provider Reimbursement Rates

Tiered Reimbursement Rate System:
The Child Development Division continues to utilize and assess piloting Formal Grant Agreements for subsidized placements with child care providers that meet more rigorous requirements than under the regular voucher system. The program pays providers a guaranteed number of slots for child care based on meeting these requirements. Currently the CCD has five programs serving school-age children included in the pilot in addition to 26 other sites serving children ages 0-6. The goals for this effort are twofold: to increase access to quality child care programs for families eligible for child care subsidies and to increase the financial stability of the respective child care programs.

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

• Interagency Advisory Groups. As part of an effort to build and support high quality, out-of-school time programs across the state, Vermont’s Department for Children and Families continues to move forward with strategic planning to promote collaboration, partnering and coordinated services at state and local levels. This includes a range of youth service agencies and government representatives who continue to work together to advance the agenda of coordinated services for children and youth in the out-of-school hours. Advisors represent the State Departments or Divisions of Education, Health, and Economic Services, as well as state and local organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, Greater Burlington YMCA, child care programs, Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, the Vermont Children’s Forum, and the Vermont Commission for National Service (AmeriCorps VISTA).

• School-Age Mini-Grants and Technical Assistance. The Child Development Division, as part of the child care plan, has targeted assistance for school-age child care by 1) providing mini-grants for expansion and enhancement of school-age programs; 2) designating a CDD program manager to afterschool systems development; and 3) providing support to public schools to develop before and afterschool programs and to coordinate programs with those funded by 21st Century Community Learning Centers funds. For the third year, CDD is using a mutual grant-making process in coordination with the Vermont Children’s Trust Fund, a public-private partnership that promotes community-based prevention programs, including many targeting positive outcomes for youth. The CDD discovered that while many organizations were applying for both types of grants, their applications were often not thoughtfully coordinated, and applicants from the same community were sometimes unaware of each other’s plans. In response, they agreed to pilot the concept of a coordinated grant-making system to reduce duplication of efforts and make their awards more aligned. They will use a process of continuous improvement to best serve applicants the pilot results to revise and continue the process in the future.

• Vermont Out-of-School Time Network. Vermont is working to support quality out-of-school time opportunities through the Vermont Out-Of-School Time (VOOST) Network, a partnership of organizations from the public, non-profit, and private sectors that serve school-age children. Members can help with out-of-school time programs, planning, advocacy, or support resources. VOOST works to support statewide training and professional develop in order to increase the quality of programming in the State. In 2005, the C.S. Mott Foundation awarded an innovation grant to VOOST to conduct a coordinated Public Awareness Campaign to increase funding to the Children’s Trust Fund, a prominent source of grant funding. VOOST has also partnered with VT Department of Education to develop a statewide celebration of Light’s On through awarding grants to local programs. These grants are intended to build a grassroots educational campaign for legislators and community leaders centered on afterschool issues. The VOOST Network has signed MOU’s with the State Child Development Division and is now responsible for the oversight of the Vermont School Age Care Network (VSACN). VOOST has also partnered with the Vermont Department of Health to pilot five afterschool sites for the research based SPARK (Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids) program through the Governor’s Fit & Healthy Kids initiative promoting physical education and nutrition in afterschool programming. A mapping project assessing the state of afterschool in the State is currently being conducted through the VT Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont and will result in a report to be released in January ‘07. This project is supported by funds from the Children’s Trust Foundation and an earmark grant from Senator Jim Jeffords.

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

• Child Care Apprenticeship Program. The Vermont Child Care Industry and Careers Council established the Vermont Child Care Apprenticeship Program. The program aims to address the recruitment and retention issues in child care. The apprenticeship provides compensatory incentives for child care workers obtaining their Child Development Associate credential (CDA) and an Apprenticeship certificate of completion, encouraging them to remain in child care rather than leaving to work in the public school system. The Vermont Department of Employment and Training and the federal Department of Labor support program activities.

  For more information, see http://www.workforcedev.org/child.

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Notable Local Initiatives

• Molly Stark School. The Molly Stark School, an elementary school in Bennington, successfully combined state and federal funds to establish a broad out-of-school time program that includes a family center built using state-administered Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. A partnership with Sunrise Family Resource Center helps the center provide a broader range of supports, including pre-school, school-age care, health services, and adult education programs. The school is one of 1,300 participants in the Schools of the 21st Century, a Yale University program that develops, researches, networks, and supervises an educational model to link communities, families, and schools.

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Statewide Organizations

National AfterSchool Association Affiliate:

Not Available

Vermont Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies

181 Commerce Street
Williston, VT 05495
Phone: 402-482-4000 or 877-822-2772
Email: VACCRRA@together.net
Web: www.vermontchildcare.org/index.html

Vermont Out-Of-School Time (VOOST) Network

P.O. Box 627
Montpelier, VT 05601-0627
Phone: 802-229-9151
Email: sue@voost.org
Web: www.voost.org

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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.