No Child Left Alone: After School Care for Children Should Be Available Everywhere

Finding adequate after school care will become another stress point for many parents this month. The summer vacation is over. Children start a new school year. Those cute little first graders will cry for their Mothers. Mothers will be left hoping that they can find a responsible adult to pick up their "little ones" .

For some kids, older sibling will be able to care them for. Other children will receive strict instructions on how to lock the door and wait patiently for parents to arrive home. These children will be left alone to care for themselves.

In the United States, there are over 14.3 million elementary school children who leave school and enter an empty house. There is no adult supervision available to them. These young children are left to fend for themselves. They must find their own after school snack and entertain themselves until parents arrive home.

These parents are worried and frustrated. They are not being neglectful. They are fighting traffic furiously trying to get home to care for their kids. A recent report compiled for the After School Alliance found that "twice as many children are without after school care as those who have this needed care available to them"

Community based programs are not available in all areas. Many schools do not offer these types of programs. A large number of the parents who participated in the After School Alliance survey stated that they would love to have a safe and secure place for their children to go after school. Unfortunately, for many parents these after school programs are not available.

One of the problems is that after school care programs are usually government funded. These programs are available to low to median-income families. But many families that earn slightly higher salaries cannot find affordable after school programs for their kids. These parents are caught in a Catch22. They do not make enough money to pay for after school care, but earn too much to qualify for the Government subsidy.