21st CCLC waivers approved – 21st CCLC grantees can operate during virtual school days

Afterschool programs using 21st Century Community Learning Center funds can now operate as a supplement to school day virtual learning in many states. This is a huge boon to students and families struggling with the resources to navigate learning from home.

On September 3rd, the U.S. Department of Education issued a notice in the Federal Register opening up a waiver process for State Education Agencies (SEAs) to allow programs to operate outside of just “non-school” hours. That means, for example, programs can now help provide a supervised learning environment where students have access to caring and supportive adults, technology, nutritious snacks and meals and other learning supports, on the days when their school is virtual. By September 18^th, SEAs had access to the waiver request form to apply. The Federal Register notice, which includes an opportunity to comment on the availability of the waiver, has been extended through December 10. The Afterschool Alliance has submitted comments commending the Department on this important flexibility.

At the time of this blog, 29 states have reportedly been approved for the waivers from the U.S. Department of Education including: AK, AZ, CO, DC, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, ME, MI, MN, MT, ND, NH, NM, NV, NY, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VA, VT, WA, WV.  Once a state’s waiver is approved, the next step is for SEAs to work with local grantees to approve changes to their grant scope of work through an application or grant modification process.  Oklahoma, South Carolina, and North Dakota have already made waiver applications available to 21^st CCLC programs in their states.  See Oklahoma’s example here.

If your state has applied and you are not on the list, the Department has been updating the Department of Education site linked above in batches of approvals, so you may want to keep an eye out if you don’t hear directly from your state administrators. If your state has not applied, but you would like to encourage them to do so, our Frequently Asked Questions on the Waiver blog may be helpful, and  your Statewide Afterschool Network may also have more information.

We know there are many programs eager to innovate on behalf of children and families and look forward to sharing best practices as programs make use of the waiver flexibility.

In addition to this new U.S Department of Education flexibility, Congress is also aiming to do its part to ensure 21^st CCLC programs have the tools they need to operate effectively at this time. The Senate released the bipartisan 21^st CCLC Coronavirus Relief Act (S. 4868) in late October, building on similar legislation introduced and unanimously passed in the House (HR 8162) in early September. The Senate bill, while similar to the House bill in emphasizing the need for programs to be able to operate during new hours, most importantly would allow an additional $1.2 billion in funding through June 2022 for 21^st CCLC programs to take on this monumental task of expanding their hours of service and meeting health and safety needs.

To help Congress understand how important both the flexibility and funding proposed in the 21^st CCLC Coronavirus Relief Act legislation is for your programs, students and families, you can reach out on our Take Action page. To share your story of how your program is innovating or would like to innovate with the increased flexibility to serve students during the COVID emergency, let us know here.