The School of Education will use $425,000 in new grants to help chart the course for California's after-school programs as the state prepares to spend hundreds of millions more in taxpayer dollars on tutoring, homework assistance and other enrichment activities.

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint, Mich., has awarded the school's Center for Community School Partnerships a $225,000 grant over three years to establish the California Statewide After-School Network. And the Foundation Consortium for California's Children & Youth has provided an additional $85,000.

A $40,000 grant from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund will help develop leaders and champions among parents and youth and make their voices heard in policy-shaping decisions by supporting outreach activities, transportation, translation and child care.

In addition, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation is giving the center $75,000 to study two questions: to what extent public funding for after-school programs is reaching communities with high needs but low resources, and what local factors influence whether underserved communities offer after-school programs and pursue funding for them.

The new network will strive to improve the quality of after-school programs and make them accessible to all schoolchildren in the state. It will provide recommendations for all after-school programs, including existing and new programs that will share in what could be more than $700 million annually in state and federal funds.

Representing both the diversity of California's population and a broad cross-section of those concerned with after-school programs, the statewide network will participate in a national after-school network and also collaborate with a new state advisory committee on after-school programs.

"Good after-school programs strengthen students' development and support the instructional mission of schools — all while appealing to our youth," said Renee Newton, director of the UC Davis center and principal investigator for the network project.

"California voters expressed strong support for expanding after-school programs to include all California schoolchildren," Newton added. "It's important that public and private funding be used effectively and equitably, consistent with voter intent."

She said Proposition 49, a successful 2002 ballot measure that Arnold Schwarzenegger championed before becoming governor, will gradually increase money for state-funded after-school programs to an estimated $550 million annually, a boost of nearly $430 million a year.

Under Prop. 49's funding formula, funds will become available when non-education general fund spending rises to $1.5 billion more than the highest spending level for any previous year since 2000. In the state fiscal outlook released in November, the Legislative Analyst Office indicated the Prop. 49 funding trigger would be pulled in the 2006-07 budget year.

Newton said some of those after-school programs are helping meet critical needs from improving students' academic achievement to providing supervision when parents are working. However, she noted, not all of the state's 1.4 million children aged 5 to 14 have access to programs, and the quality varies.

Access issues

The California Statewide After-School Network will address pressing questions about program quality and the allocation of funding, she said. "In particular, it will be important to ask how we can best meet the needs of underserved youth, families and communities."

The network will focus on identifying other key policy questions and developing recommendations in support of after-school programs for all, including such issues as the right mix of academic support, enrichment activities and other programming; staff training; appropriate sources for matching funds; and evaluating program effectiveness.

Recommendations will help guide many existing programs including those funded with almost $163 million annually through the federal government's 21st Century Community Learning Center Program; those already receiving $120 million under the After School Education & Safety Program; and various programs supported by municipalities, youth groups and other private organizations.

Network participants will include policymakers, educators, child care providers, youth development workers, program developers, advocates, parents and state agencies. "One-size-fits-all programs won't work in a state as diverse as California," said Newton. "Our network will bring a variety of perspectives to the table to help programs reflect and serve their communities."

Newton said UC Davis was designated to provide leadership to the network because of its independent stature, its capacity to conduct policy research and its experience providing technical assistance to Healthy Start and after-school programs.

California is one of nine states to receive an innovation grant from the Mott Foundation to support the ongoing work of statewide after-school networks, and it now joins 30 such networks in the nation that have received Mott funding to date.

"The center's role with the network underscores the School of Education's commitments to put research to work in policy and practice and to collaborate broadly with others for the benefit of California learners," Harold Levine, dean of the school, said.

Newton, who for 20 years has led project development and statewide programs in education and public health, will convene the first network meeting Jan. 24.