After-school programs for low-income children: Differences in program quality.

Interest in after-school programs is at an all-time high. In 1991, approximately 1.7 million children were enrolled in 49,500 beforeand/or afterschool programs (Seppanen, Love, de Vries, & Bernstein, 1993). By 1997, 6.8 million children of employed mothers were reported to attend programs before and/or after school (Capizzano, Tout, & Adams, 2000). Fully two thirds of the principals in one recent national survey reported that their individual schools or school districts offered after-school programs (Belden Russonello & Stewart, 2001). Funding for after-school programs also has increased substantially. For example, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs), a federally funded initiative to support after-school programs in schools serving low-income children has grown from $40 million in 1997 to $1 billion in 2001 (Grossman, Walker, & Raley, 2001). Even so, the increased funding has not kept pace with interest from school districts in offering after-school programs. In 2000, 2,252 applications were submitted to the U.S. Department ofEducation to establish school-based after-school programs, but funds were available to support only 310 of these applications (C.J.Mitchell, personal communication, October 21, 2002).