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by Jessie Rymph, Web Communications and Database Manager

Do you know a little boy who loves to dress up in girls’ clothes or play with dolls? Seattleite Cheryl Kilodavis wrote the wonderful book My Princess Boy to encourage children and adults to love and appreciate little boys like her son Dyson.

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By Danielle Baer, Communications & Grants Manager

Last week, hundreds of Garfield High School students in Seattle walked out of class in protest against proposed cuts to education funding during the special legislative session called by Governor Gregoire this month.  As a Garfield alum, I was proud to see fellow bulldogs standing up for what they believe in and speaking out against further cuts that are having a real impact on their day to day educational experience.  

As we advocate on behalf of young people and providing access to quality expanded learning opportunities, afterschool, youth development and summer programs, we need to remember to listen to youth voice and provide opportunities for their input to be heard.  Over the past few years, many people have become desensitized to hearing about budget cuts. What’s another billion in a deficit of trillions?  What does it really mean?  But when students take to the streets and tell us firsthand what education cuts mean to their lives and their futures, the message resonates in a concrete way and makes a real impact.

Just this week, the Children’s Alliance and Washington State Budget & Policy Center released their Kids Count in Washington 2012 report including more data on the persistent achievement gap in Washington State and its disproportionate impact on Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic and American Indian students.  Further cutting education is not going to help narrow this gap and provide opportunities for all young people to thrive in school and life.  

Over the course of the next few months, we will be supporting efforts to preserve safety net services such as high quality afterschool and youth development programs, food and nutrition programs, health care programs, employing training programs and a strong educational system that prepares children and youth to enter the future workforce.  Stay tuned for our 2012 legislative agenda and sign-up for our Washington Afterschool Network email alert system for regular updates and opportunities to take action on budget and policy issues during the 2012 legislative session.  As young people take risks and take to the streets, we need to support their actions and speak up to preserve essential services for children, youth and families.

Photos by Joshua Trujillo of the SeattlePI.com.

Click here to see Joshua's photo slideshow

As part of the 2011 Lights On Afterschool celebration, the Afterschool Alliance released Afterschool Progress Reports and Consumer Guides for each state.  Washington State has made progress since 2004, with a 12% participation in afterschool programs in 2009 versus 8% in 2004. However, we still trail the national average of 15% participation.  We still have work to do despite the some progress being made.  According to the Afterschool Alliance:

Based on the FY2011 funding level and an average per student cost of $1000, 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) can serve 14,597 students in Washington. However, that is only a small fraction of the 298,973 kids in Washington who are eligible to participate in a 21st CCLC program, if more funding were available.

The full progress report can be accessed from the Afterschool Alliance’s website.

We all know that a barrier to accessing high-quality afterschool programs is funding, and this is becoming even more of a harsh reality every year.   In just a couple short weeks, Washington State legislators will be convening in Olympia for a special session.  The focus will be on passing a budget for the 2012 session.  Cuts already proposed by Governor Gregoire will impact working families who rely on afterschool programs to keep their kids safe, learning and engaged after the school bell rings.  We’re facing further cuts to the Working Connections Child Care program, cuts to K-12 education funding and other social and health services that will only create more challenges for children and families in our state.

Every year, advocates for children’s issues gather in Olympia for Have a Heart for Kids Day in February, but this year due to the special circumstances, the advocacy day will be held December 2nd.   Learn more about this important event and join the Change Direction: Raise Kids Up campaign to send a message to legislators that cuts are not the answer.

The 12th annual Lights On Afterschool celebration is TODAY!  What are you doing to celebrate the importance of afterschool programs in your community? Did you remember to register your event? Would you like to find an event already happening in your community? Visit the Afterschool Alliance’s website for a listing of registered events (and to register your event) – there are currently over 50 events registered across Washington State.   And we’d love to hear about how you celebrated Lights On Afterschool.  Email Danielle with your event summary and/or pictures that captured your experience.

School’s Out Washington will be celebrating Lights On Afterschool on Monday, October 24th at an event in Yakima hosted by Northwest Community Action Center and Yakima School District.  We will hear from some great speakers including Nicole Yohalem with the Forum for Youth Investment and Yakima County Sherriff Ken Irwin as well as present our Afterschool Hall of Fame Awards to this year’s champions who include:

• Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin
• City of Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland
• City of Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson
• Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund
• Pam O’Brien, Educator from Olympia
• Joanne Benham, Community Leader from Spokane
• Jack Albaugh, Community Leader from Fife

Take a moment to read a news story including an interview with Sheriff Irwin about Lights On Afterschool.  

Building public will and raising awareness around the importance of afterschool programs in keeping kids safe, engaged and learning when not in school is more critical than ever.  Yesterday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee began marking up the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as part of the reauthorization process.  Included in this bill is language that would drastically alter funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Center program by allowing these funds to be diverted to support the whole scale redesign of the school day. 

Senator Murray serves on this committee and it’s critical that she hear from her constituents here in Washington State about the key role that 21st CCLC funds play in supporting Washington’s kids, families and communities.   Visit the Afterschool Alliance’s website for more information on what you can do to help support 21st CCLC programs.

Lights On Afterschool is right around the corner on October 20, 2011.  On this day, communities across the country will celebrate the importance of afterschool programs in supporting young people.  The Afterschool Alliance has an event planning toolkit and other resources on their website to help get you started.   Some ideas of what you can do:

• Host an event to showcase your program to families, community members, local businesses, etc.
• Have youth performance with dance, music , poetry and other arts
• Hold a rally in a central area of your community inviting local leaders
• Engage students in letter writing campaigns to share why their afterschool program is important to them and send to local and state leaders

These are just a few ideas.  Be creative and work with the youth in your program to come up with a great celebration for your community.  It doesn’t have to be big; sharing with families, teachers or others involved with your program is a wonderful way to celebrate Lights On Afterschool.  It’s also a great opportunity to reach out to elected officials such as mayors, city council members, school board members, principals and superintendents, legislators, business leaders and other community leaders to help them see why investing in and supporting afterschool programs is critical to fostering healthy communities. 

School’s Out Washington hosts an annual statewide event and this year will be partnering with Northwest Community Action Center and Yakima School District to celebrate Lights On Afterschool at the Yakima Convention Center.  We’ll be awarding our Afterschool Hall of Fame awards to champions from across the state who’ve shown dedicated leadership in promoting the benefits and importance of afterschool programs in Washington State. 

As you start planning your event, don’t forget to register! The Afterschool Alliance tracks registration by state. So far, 25 events have been registered in Washington, but we lag behind other states like Arizona with 45, Wisconsin with 37, North Carolina with 64 and Missouri with 90.   An extra perk, if you register by Thursday, September 22, you will be entered to win 50 energy-efficient LED light bulbs thanks to Fulham Co, Inc. 

We hope you’ll celebrate Lights On Afterschool in your community – and don’t forget to register. If you’d like any assistance with ideas for your event or support with reaching out to elected officials and the media, please contact Danielle.  

SOWA’s Working Towards MVP Status
(Most Valuable Partner)

By Amanda Thomas, Director of Education Policy

I ventured to Tumwater on Tuesday, August 2nd to attend: “Graduation: A Team Effort” Partners Group meeting at the New Market Skills Center. This state and regional collaborative effort engages Educational Service Districts, schools, parents and the community in coordinating efforts to keep kids in school and on track to graduate. The meeting was well attended by individuals representing many state agencies as well as a few state legislators. Superintendent Dorn made an appearance and encouraged the group to work together to reach a 90% graduation rate for Washington State.

First on the agenda was Dan Newell, Assistant Superintendent Secondary Education & School Improvement Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction who brought everyone up to speed and shared current dropout-related developments. In Mr. Newell’s presentation, he emphasized the need to address the whole student: academic development, career development, personal/social development as well as a young person’s family and community supports to impact positive outcomes for youth- Mr. Newell gets it!

Representative Tim Probst shared about the Pay for Actual Student Success (PASS) House Bill 1599 incentivizes schools to reduce their dropout rate with direct payments of funds for the principal to use if goals are achieved. We listened to program briefings by the four programs referenced in the Pass Act which include: the Building Bridges Program, Jobs for Washington Graduates, College Success Foundation Scholarship Programs, Opportunity Internship Program and information as to how the programs will collaborate to support a systemic approach.

Sue Furth, formerly with the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative, now a key member of the OSPI Graduation Core Team spoke about making systemic, sustainable change and how to “scale up” innovation. Sue spoke eloquently about the importance of optimizing student data and how everyone in the room played a role in student success. Plans are underway to bring Chris Dede, a Harvard emerging technology expert and author of Scaling Up Success: Lessons Learned from Technology-based Educational Improvement to Washington to work with the “Graduation: A Team Effort” Partners Group.

Greg Williamson, Director, Learning and Teaching Support for OSPI, who pretty much knows everybody and a lot or a little about everything gave an overview of the workgroup activities and facilitated the identification of themes, prioritizing of goals, groupings and tasks with a group of 60 people…no small feat but we got it done. The essential elements of a comprehensive dropout prevention, intervention and retrieval system have been determined as: an Information System, Family and Community Partnerships, Empowering Youth, Creating Support for Collective Impact and Integrated Funding. I am representing School’s Out Washington in the Community Partnership workgroup and hope to get connected to the Data/Information Systems workgroup for the purpose of adding an Afterschool Youth Development voice to the vision of ensuring the success of all learners in our great state.

Mr. Newell closed the meeting out with his rock star-like energy and spoke of the great charge ahead of us, the stellar team he’s brought together and the need for us to work in a broad-based and coordinated manner to actualize effective and efficient dropout prevention, intervention and retrieval.  The next “Graduation: A Team Effort” Partners Group meeting is Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at OSPI in the Brouillet Conference Room, located on the 4th floor. Community stakeholders are encouraged to attend and get involved!