The Need for School Age Care in America Since the fall of 1997 America has experienced a rapid increase in the number of school shootings. These crimes have been completely non-discriminate towards either social status or ethnicity. What these incidents do have in common is the fact that students between the ages of 10 to 16 committed them. When later interviewed, most of the students who instigated these crimes reported feeling like loners or outcasts within their student body and communities. It has been the direct effect of these violent acts that people across America are looking towards permanent solutions for these problems and the need for quality after-school programs has come into the national focus.Violent juvenile crime triples during the hours of 3pm and 8pm. (Fox and Newman 1997, cited by the National Institute on Out of School Time, Wellesley College- NOIST) Today experts estimate that there are over 5 million American students between the ages of 10 to 16 who return from school to an empty home. Economic necessity is the number one factor for this staggering figure followed by the lack of quality after-school programs available. Statistics show that these unsupervised students are at a greater risk to participate in drug experimentation, sex and truancy, while exhibiting lowered school performances. Children, families and communities can all benefit greatly from quality after-school programs. The majority of the time spent by unsupervised children and youth is either watching television or with peers in unsupervised activities. Quality after-school programs provide a safe, supervised environment for these young people and children. After-school programs also provide structured supervised activities, which improves the overall learning process. The students involved in quality after-school programs create more positive relationships with their peers and also with caring responsible adults with whom these students can...
