The 2008 Georgia legislative session is in full swing! So what, you may say? The truth of the matter is, what happens under the Gold Dome can have a direct impact on your afterschool program and on you - whether you are a provider, a parent, a teacher or even someone just concerned about what Georgia's youth are doing during those hours after school and during the summer.

For example, the General Assembly made the decision a couple of years ago to provide funds for afterschool programs through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families federal block grant. Because of this investment, public funds currently support afterschool programs across the state serving more than 19,000 youth.

Everyday, legislators make legal and budget decisions - let's work to ensure legislators make decisions that will benefit youth and support quality afterschool in Georgia. Staying informed on the work in the state legislature is critical to advocating for more funding and support for your child, your program, and your community. GAIC makes this easy by sending out updates on afterschool activities at the Capitol as well as relevant legislation that affects our educational system, our workplaces, and our families. Take a few minutes and read our legislative updates - and please follow up with us if you have any questions or need clarifications. By staying informed you are one step closer to making afterschool a priority among Georgia's top leaders.

Many of our state's afterschool programs have enormous trouble finding the sustained funding they need to keep their doors open and offer students the activities and support they deserve. One of the principal funding sources for afterschool programs in Georgia is 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC), the federal government's main funding stream for afterschool. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 called for steady but modest funding increases that would have invested $2.5 billion in afterschool in 2007.

This month, President Bush released a budget proposal that would cut this immensely popular 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative in Georgia from the $33 million it is receiving this year to under $25 million in fiscal year 2009. At a time when over a million kids in Georgia may spend time away from their parents between 3PM and 6PM, the peak hours for violent juvenile crime and children becoming victims of crime, that cut would deny afterschool programs to over 8,000 students in Georgia. It would be disastrous for afterschool programs, and for the children and families they serve in Georgia.

Furthermore, while claiming that there has been little improvement in key academic outcomes for afterschool since 2004, the White House also recommended transforming 21st CCLCs into an afterschool and summer school scholarship program, renamed 21st Century Learning Opportunities. The goal, according to the budget document, is "to give parents greater choices in the selection of extended learning opportunities for their children."

With millions of children unsupervised after school across the country, funding for afterschool programs should go up, not down. That's what the President agreed to in the No Child Left Behind Act, it's what Georgia's children and families need, and it's what Congress should provide.

The Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University hosts its 2008 national conference, April 17- 18, in Albuquerque, New Mexico--an inspirational setting for this one-of-a-kind conference that allows attendees to confer, connect and come away equipped with fresh ideas and the latest approaches for effective summer learning programs.

On February 7, 2008, the Georgia Afterschool Investment Council and Family Connection Partnership hosted the fifth afterschool regional forum in Georgia. Held in Columbus, this forum brought together over 50 afterschool advocates and community leaders. Forum participants addressed afterschool challenges facing their region, and developed a regional plan of action emphasizing collaboration and the sharing of resources and best practices, professional development, and improved communication to the public on the benefits of afterschool programs in their communities.

The "Promising Afterschool Programs" study, released in October by scholars Deborah Lowe Vandell and Kim M. Pierce of the University of California-Irvine, and Elizabeth R. Reisner of Policy Studies Associates, examined 35 afterschool programs serving nearly 3,000 low-income students across the nation. What united the programs was that they were all judged by the researchers to be of "high quality." Specifically, before and during the period of the study, programs evidenced supportive relationships between staff and children and among children, and offered rich and varied academic support, recreation, arts opportunities, and other enrichment activities.

A new Child Trends fact sheet finds that both family risks and neighborhood risks are related to whether children are involved in out-of-school time programs. An increasing number of studies have found that participation in an out-of-school time program is related to better outcomes for children; however, most of this research examines family and neighborhood risks separately. This fact sheet looks at both types of risks together by analyzing data for children aged 6 to 17 from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health. Among the findings:

• Neighborhood quality is related to whether children from low-risk families are involved in out-of- school time activities. However, the vast majority of children in low-risk families are involved in at least one activity.
• Neighborhood quality does not seem to matter to children from high-risk families. Nearly one- half are not involved in any activities regardless of neighborhood risk level.

Many thanks to those of you that have sent us wonderful success stories of children and youth from your programs. We appreciate your help building support for afterschool with potential afterschool funders and local and state officials. We are still collecting personal success stories about how an afterschool program has positively affected the life of a young person.