Hamilton County families looking for after-school tutoring, sports, child care and other programs now have a centralized place to look with a new online program locator.
The locator for programs outside of school time features around 400 options. It allows families to search and sort based on program focus, grades served, ZIP code, transportation availability and other factors.
Through this map, Chattanooga 2.0’s Out-of-School Time Alliance, a network of local providers who serve children outside traditional school hours, hopes to increase the knowledge of and access to after-school programming for K-12 students.
Previously, Hamilton County did not have a comprehensive catalog of after-school options, and families had to rely on word of mouth or personal research to find programming that meets their child’s interests or needs, said Brandon Hubbard-Heitz, Chattanooga 2.0’s director of literacy and student strategies.
(READ MORE: Literacy tutoring program expands to 12 Hamilton County elementary schools)
After-school programs play an important role in supporting children exploring their interests and potential careers, as well as promoting their academic and social-emotional development, Hubbard-Heitz said. For students who are too young to stay home alone, it can serve as extended care, and for older students, it can give them a safe space to socialize or pursue interests.
He pointed to a 26-year study released in September that found that large gaps in the opportunities available at home, child care, school, after school and in the neighborhood accrued for children born into low- versus higher-income households. Those gaps were also strongly linked to educational attainment and earnings in early adulthood.
“It was, for me, a timely reminder of the very important role that out-of-school time programming plays in not just supporting working parents and keeping kids safe after school, but also supporting their academic achievement and success in the workforce,” Hubbard-Heitz said in an interview.
The programs included in the locator are, for the most part, run by members of the Out-of-School Time Alliance, but Chattanooga 2.0 is working on outreach to other providers in the community to ensure they are included, Hubbard-Heitz said.
Long-term, the organization hopes to use the data to identify gaps in after-school programming across the county so that providers can work to create new opportunities where they are missing. Once there is a complete list, it plans to analyze the data and look specifically at where programs are located, which grades are being served and what programs are focused on in order to see where the gaps are, director of data strategy and impact Rachel Kramer said.
Families can access the outside-school-time program locator at chatt2.org/ost/ost-locator/.
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.