State Profile | Pennsylvania

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 given to six regionally based school-age child care organizations to provide specialized training and technical assistance to school age providers to enhance the quality of school-age child care. These agencies sub-contract through the six Regional Key agencies to provide training and technical assistance to school-age child care providers. Additionally, school age child care providers are included in the Keystone STARS Quality Improvement Initiative.

Other quality activities:
Funds may be used for comprehensive consumer education, grants or loans to providers to assist in meeting state and local standards, and for monitoring compliance with licensing and regulatory requirements. Funds may also be used for professional development, improving salaries for child care providers, and activities to promote inclusive child care. Other areas which may be funded include health activities pertaining to youth development and activities that increase parental choice.

Provider Reimbursement Rates

Tiered Reimbursement Rate System:
The state offers tiered payments for subsidized child care providers who have attained a STAR level of 2 and above. In addition, providers have the opportunity to be eligible for support grants, merit awards, and education and retention awards based on the achievement of Star levels through its Keystone STARS Quality Initiative.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Care

Program Licensing Policies

Physical site requirements do not apply for school-age programs located in school buildings under a specific section of the Public School Code.

Systems/Quality Supports

21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC)

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Statewide Initiatives

• Keystone Standards, Training, Assistance, Resources, and Support (STARS). The Keystone STARS program provides Standards, Training, Assistance, Resources, and Support to facilitate continuous improvement and recognize achievement by child care providers, including school-age care. Keystone STARS establishes a quality rating improvement system, whereby each STAR designation is based on research-based performance standards or benchmarks that are linked to improving outcomes for children. Some specific examples of how school-age providers are supported in Keystone STARS are described below.

  • Standards have been interpreted for school-age programs through the creation of school-age specific worksheets and optional tools which provide guidance for meeting benchmarks.
  • Training and professional development have been developed to assist practitioner movement on the Career Lattice (e.g. New Staff Orientation, SAC Credential) and understanding of linking curriculum and learning standards, coordinating and communicating with families and schools, observation and assessment.
  • Assistance is available in the form of individualized on-site assistance aimed at achieving specified knowledge relative to performance expectations of Keystone STARS.
  • Resources for example are available to SACC programs meeting eligibility and specific standards in the form of merit awards, education and retention awards, vouchers and tiered reimbursement.
  • Supports include the creation of the T.E.A.C.H. Afterschool/Youth Development Scholarship developed in partnership with the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), Pennsylvania Key, Pennsylvania Child Care Association (PACCA), Pennsylvania Afterschool Youth Development Network (PSAYDN), the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST).The new scholarship provides financial assistance and other supports for staff to earn college coursework toward a PA School-Age Professional Credential, Youth Work Certificate or Associate degree.
• School-Age Care Training and Technical Assistance (SACC-T/TA). Through the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, Child Care and Development Fund school-age targeted funds support regionally based school-age child care organizations and specialists to provide specialized training and technical assistance. These agencies subcontract through the six Regional Key agencies. A primary emphasis of their services focuses on training and technical assistance to support SACC providers participating in Keystone STARS. SACC-T/TA employ research-based methods for improving program quality and impacting positive outcomes for children. Regional SACC-T/TA also facilitates partnerships with community stakeholders to promote the development and expansion of out-of-school programming.
• Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program (PMEP). The Pennsylvania Migrant Education program provides supplemental educational and support services to migratory children. The Migrant Education Program assists local school districts with improving and coordinating the educational continuity for the children of migrant farm workers who have had their schooling interrupted. PMEP works in close collaboration with school districts, intermediate units, and community agencies to help migrant children meet the same high standards expected of all children by coordinating and supporting services that sustain and accelerate their progress in school. The PMEP has provided summer academic enrichment programs to the children of migrant workers since 1969. The afterschool tutoring component of PMEP provides supplemental materials, activities and instruction designed to provide additional assistance in language arts and/or math, in order to help migrant students achieve academic success. Since 1993, the state has expanded the PMEP, utilizing both state and federal funding. There are nine project areas that provide services throughout the Commonwealth.
• Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool/ Youth Development Network (PSAYDN). The Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool Youth Development Network’s goal is to significantly enhance the welfare of Pennsylvania’s children and youth through the expansion and improvement of afterschool programs. To accomplish this, the Network continues to develop and implement a public policy agenda designed to increase programming and funding support for afterschool projects. In 2008-2009, these efforts resulted in a Legislative Budget and Finance Committee study on access to afterschool in the Commonwealth. The Network is also working to identify and secure the training and technical assistance resources necessary to assure quality standards and practices for all providers, including, but not limited to, schools and community-based organizations.
• Tutoring Programs. The Educational Assistance Program (EAP), an initiative of the Governor signed into law for the 2003-04 school year, appropriates $65.1 million for tutoring in fiscal year 2008-09. EAP provides grants to districts that have schools not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind standards. In addition to these funds allocated by Pennsylvania, tutoring programs also receive educational block grants from the Accountability Block Grant (ABG). The 2008-2009 ABG mid- year report states $10,437,534 of Accountability Block Grant funding was invested in tutoring. Approximately 172,000 students are provided with tutoring services in the Commonwealth each year.
• Job Training for Youth. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry in Workforce Investment Act (WIA) dollars to support youth employment training and preparation programs, including out-of-school time activities. Funding is allocated to local workforce boards on a formula basis. Boards can use funds to support a variety of job preparation programs as well as summer youth employment programs. Since 1999, the state has allocated TANF dollars to supplement WIA funds supporting youth activities. Pennsylvania appropriates $15 million annually in TANF funds to promote youth and community activities through the Workforce Investment Boards.
• ELECT Student Works (ESW). The ELECT Student Works (ESW) program provides comprehensive afterschool activities to at-risk youth in grades three through eight. The program promotes academic achievement and employs a variety of strategies, such as mentoring and service learning, to help youth to avoid teenage pregnancy and other risky behaviors. The following school districts have provided ESW services since 2002: School District of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Public Schools, School District of the City of Erie and Harrisburg School District.
• Communities that Care (CTC). Communities That Care is a risk-focused and evidence based approach for promoting positive development among youth. CTC works by empowering communities to gather at the grass-roots level in order to enhance positive youth development and reduce risk factors that are shown to increase the likelihood that youth will be involved in such problem behaviors as delinquency, substance abuse, school drop-out violence and teen pregnancy. Pennsylvania initiated a comprehensive plan to implement CTC projects throughout the state in the mid-1990s. The effort is administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Through the work of prevention boards across the Commonwealth, CTC has become integral to the communities they serve. PCCD has supported a variety programs through local CTC sites, including those that occur during out-of-school time.

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Notable Local Initiatives

• Allegheny Partners for Out-of-School Time (APOST) is a group of funders, afterschool intermediaries, and afterschool providers who started meeting in 2007 to discuss ways to strengthen the afterschool system in Allegheny County. Convened by United Way of Allegheny County, the group is exploring the research, identifying best practices, and conducting a series of benchmarking trips to learn important steps in creating a coherent system for afterschool.
• Philadelphia Out-of-School Time Strategy. In 2008, the Mayor asked the Deputy Mayor to recommend an OST Strategy for the City of Philadelphia. The Deputy Mayor then convened an OST Advisory Committee comprised of city officials, intermediaries, researchers, school district personnel, higher education staff, funders, and program providers. Meeting monthly for over a year, this committee developed a vision and mission statement, a proposed governance structure, and a detailed implementation recommendation. These items have been presented to the Deputy Mayor and are in the process of being shared with the Mayor. Key suggestions include 1) instituting multiple levels of accountability and oversight; 2) viewing the city’s entire array of OST programs as a single, unified system; 3) dividing key responsibilities among multiple organizations and intermediaries; and 4) pursuing and integrating diverse funding sources.
• Philadelphia Youth Network. The Philadelphia Youth Network’s vision is that all of our city’s young people take their rightful places as full and contributing members of a world-class workforce for the region. PYN is pursuing this vision by making connections between individuals, organizations and systems to provide the preparation needed for the City’s youth to thrive in a regional and global economy. PYN manages all aspects of WorkReady Philadelphia, on behalf of the Philadelphia Youth Council. WorkReady Philadelphia coordinates $12M in public, private and foundation investments to place more than 10,000 young people in high-quality programs that incorporate work experience, academic enrichment and college exposure. WorkReady also includes skills training and industry pipeline programs.
• Southwestern PA Afterschool Resource Collaboration (SPARC). The mission of this initiative is to create an organized system of information about non-school hour programs and services in southwestern PA to help guide planning decisions and consumer choice. The ultimate vision of this collaborative partnership is to establish a community-wide initiative to support the delivery of non-school hour services so that every child in need will have access to a quality program. Agencies providing afterschool programs, policy makers, funders, social service agencies, and educators are all active participants in the initiative. By providing information about afterschool programs online via the website, www.SwpaAfterschool.org, SPARC strives to be a resource to agencies to strengthen and sustain services and connect youth initiatives in the region.

  For more information, please visit http://www.SwpaAfterschool.org

• The United Way of Southeastern PA (UWSEPA) is partnering with the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) on the Data-Driven Program Improvement Project (D-PIP), a new initiative aimed at building the capacity of youth programs to measure youth outcomes and self-assess the quality of their programs. The key aim of the project is to help programs learn how to use their outcome and quality data to improve the experiences of the young people they serve and more effectively contribute to long-term outcomes for youth.

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Statewide Organizations

National AfterSchool Association Affiliate:

Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Alliance
Northampton Community College
3835 Green Pond Rd
Bethlehem, PA 18020
Phone: 610-332-6541
Email: jlang@northampton.edu

Statewide Child Care Resource & Referral Network:

Pennsylvania Child Care Association
2300 Vartan Way, Suite 103
Harrisburg, PA 17110
Phone: 717-657-9000
Fax: 717-657-0959
Web: http://www.pacca.org/

Statewide Afterschool Network:

Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool Youth Development Network
Center for Schools and Communities
275 Grandview Avenue, Suite 200
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17011
Phone: 717-763-1661
Web: http://www.center-school.org/

Other statewide organizations:

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
20 N. Market Square, Suite 300
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Phone: 1-800-257-2030
Web: www.papartnerships.org/capitol_agenda.asp

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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/states/tanf-dr.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, 2008: Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2008, U.S. Census Bureau.

Number of children ages 5-12, 2008: Estimates of the Resident Population by Single-Year of Age and Sex for the United States and States: July 1, 2007, U.S. Census Bureau.

Percent of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch rate, 2006: 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. Note: Most recent data.

Percent of K-12 students in Title I "schoolwide" schools, 2006: 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. 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. Note: Most recent data.

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.

FFY09 CCDF Allocation: Funding allocations are based on appropriation and do not reflect any reallotted or redistributed funds that may occur at a later date.

FFY09 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.

FFY09 Tribal CCDF Allocation: Federal CCDF Funds are awarded directly to Federally-recognized Indian Tribes.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funding: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) appropriates an additional $2 billion in one-time CCDF Discretionary funding available to State, Territory and Tribal Lead Agencies in FY09 as part of the economic stimulus package.

FFY07 total quality expenditures: This data includes FY07 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 FY07.

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: Rates are listed for center-based care, family child care, and license exempt programs; 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 FY2008-2009 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 different age ranges and Tiered Reimbursement Rate Systems: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Care Bureau. Report of State Plans FY2008-2009.

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 FY07 that were awarded in FY07 and prior years. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, available at: 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 FY07 that were awarded in FY07 and prior years. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, available at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofs/data/2007/tanf_2007.html.

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 Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC) and National Association for Regulatory Administration, 2007 Child Care Licensing Study, see: http://www.naralicensing.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=160.

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.

School-based, school-age programs exempt from licensing: Research conducted by Afterschool Investments, March 2008.

Systems/Quality Supports

School-age credential: NCCIC, State Professional Development System Credentials for Individuals, see: http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/poptopics/pd-credentials.html.

Statewide quality rating system: NCCIC, Quality Rating Systems: Definitions and Statewide Systems, see: http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/qrs-defsystems.html.

Statewide afterschool network: National Network of Statewide Afterschool Networks, see: http://www.statewideafterschoolnetworks.net/.

21st Century Community Learning Centers

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program is a state formula grant. Funds flow to states based on their share of Title I, Part A funds. Data from the U.S. Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Centers Office and the 21st CCLC Profile and Performance Information Collection System as of July 2009.

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The Child Care Bureau awarded a technical assistance contract to The Finance Project 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

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.