The Florida Department of Education has cut the funding for dozens of the state's afterschool programs by 30 percent. The Children’s Services Council of Leon County is the first CSC to commit to help its local program.
Many working families rely on afterschool programs for their kids, allowing parents to keep 9-to-5 jobs while keeping their children safe after 3 p.m.
Now the state Department of Education has told 27 counties they’ll be losing nearly a third of their afterschool funding. Leon was one.
Michele Watson, CEO of the Florida Alliance of Children’s Councils and Trusts, says the councils make different choices on how to spend their taxpayer-funded dollars.
“All of our Children’s Services Councils - especially now, with changes to a lot of the federal programs – are setting aside some emergency dollars to go ahead and support programs that AFTER the budget reconciliation process, after everything happens, if there are major holes that impact the needs of children in their communities, they will be ready to respond.”
Watson says the CSCs are watching to see where the needs are greatest for the children they serve. It's up to the CSCs to decide, but others could follow Leon’s lead.
“Where Leon clearly demonstrated that it was that afterschool space that they were ready to respond because it meant children potentially not having safe afterschool programs, they went ahead and exercised their right to go ahead and use their dollars for that,” Watson said.
In Leon County, the 30 percent reduction amounts to about half a million dollars.
