Professionals

The South Dakota Department of Social Services offers a training program for a South Dakota Out-of-school time Credential.  Learn more about this credential here.

A schedule of regional trainings can be found at the Department of Social Services website.

For out-of-school time programs or start-ups, support specialists based in each region can provide technical assistance along with resource and training information for your program. Learn more.

Information on an annual conference hosted by the South Dakota School Age Care Alliance is available here.

The hours after school are a critical time for youth. Quality after-school programs help keep students safe, healthy and inspire them to learn. Quality after-school programs also help working families and save taxpayers money. Here’s how:

Safety: Students who are on their own and unsupervised after-school are more likely to engage in risky behavior such as smoking, using drugs and alcohol and becoming sexually active. Additionally, they are more likely to become victims of crime or accidents (National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center and the Afterschool Alliance).

Health: After-school programs can and do play a role in promoting healthy lifestyles for youth. A study of after-school programs shows that obesity was significantly lower among program participants (21 percent) compared to non-participants (33 percent) (Mahoney J., Lord, H., & Carryl, E., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005).

Learning: Quality after-school programs improve student grades and test performance, increase school attendance and improve homework completion and quality. Students who participate in after-school programs are also less likely to repeat a grade (U.S. Department of Education, National Dropout Center).

Helping families: Parents miss an average of eight days of work per year due to a lack of after-school care. Decreased worker productivity related to parental concerns about their children in after-school hours costs businesses up to $300 billion per year (Community, Families and Work Program at Brandeis University, 2004, and Catalyst and Brandeis University, 2006).

Saving money: Funding after-school programs is a smart, long-term investment for our communities and state. Every dollar invested in after-school programs saves taxpayers approximately $3 in reduced crime and welfare costs (Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College).

Quality after-school programming includes an array of safe, structured programs that provide school-age youth with supervised activities designed to encourage learning and development outside of the typical school day.

Common elements of successful out-of-school time programs include:

• Strong management, quality staff
• Low staff-to-student ratio (1:15)
• Attention to students’ safety, health and nutrition
• Strong family involvement
• Enriching learning opportunities
• Links with school curriculum and school teachers
• Evaluation of program effectiveness
• A clear mission
• A supportive emotional climate
• Collaborative partnerships with the community and law enforcement

To learn about program evaluation and self-assessment visit:

California Afterschool Network’s Quality Self-Assessment Tool

Harvard Family Research Project on Evaluation

Forum for Youth Investment’s Assessment Tools

South Dakota School-Age Care Alliance (SoDakSACA) Promotes quality out-of-school time programs for children and youth through professional development and public advocacy.

National Afterschool Association The leading voice of the after-school profession, dedicated to development, education, and care of children and youth during their out of school hours. NAA is the national affiliate to the South Dakota School Age Care Alliance.

Licensing standards were established in 2000for out-of-school time programs. These standards help ensure safe environments for school-age children along with ongoing staff training. Today, there are over 150 state-licensed out-of-school time programs. The Department of Social Services, Division of Child Care provides licensing information at: http://dss.sd.gov/childcare/licensing/

The national accrediting body for after-school programs is the Council on Accreditation.

Key elements of sustainability:

Vision and a focused mission: articulating a vision and mission is the first step toward focusing on and achieving program objectives.

Results orientation: measuring results is an important part of gaining support and ensuring continuation of programs.

Strategic financing orientation: enables program leaders to identify the resources needed to sustain program activities and then develop strategies to bring these resources together to achieve goals.

Adaptability to changing conditions: enables programs to take advantage of various opportunities that can help to achieve sustainability.

Broad base of stakeholder support: means determining who within the community loves an initiative, who needs it and who would care if it were gone. Fiscal and non-fiscal support will follow.

Key champions: Rally leaders from businesses, faith-based institutions, government and other parts of the community who are committed to an initiative’s vision and are willing to help generate support.

Strong internal systems: Building strong internal systems, such as government structure, fiscal management, accounting, personnel systems and data tracking enables a program to work effectively and efficiently.

Sustainability plan: helpsclarify future initiatives and provides benchmarks for determining whether initiatives are successfully reaching their goals.

The Finance Project provides extensive resources on sustainability planning.

The Afterschool Alliance provides tools, tips and advice about funding.

Find current federal funding opportunities here.

Learn more about federal funding here. 

Below is a list of links you may find helpful:

Afterschool Alliance: An alliance of public, private, and nonprofit groups committed to raising awareness and expanding resources for after-school programs.

Afterschool.gov: Connects after-school providers to Federal resources that support children and youth during out-of-school hours.

Afterschool.org: For after-school program directors who want to improve the quality of their programs.

Common Core Standards Initiative: Provides a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.

Fight Crime Invest in Kids: An anti-crime organization of over 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors who look at research about what prevents kids from becoming criminals and puts that information in the hands of policymakers and the general public.

Harvard Family Research Project: Helping stakeholders develop and evaluate strategies to promote the well being of children, youth, families and their communities.

Make It Stick: highlights changes in education that are making a difference.

National Afterschool Association: The leading voice of the after-school profession dedicated to development, education and care of children and youth during their out of school hours. NAA is the national affiliate to the South Dakota School Age Care Alliance.

National Summer Learning Association: Connects and equips schools and community organizations to deliver quality summer learning programs to our nation’s youth to help close the achievement gap and support healthy development.

New Day for Learning: A 21st century vision for learning that builds on a foundation of core academics by leveraging community resources to incorporate strategies such as hands-on learning, working in teams and problem solving.

South Dakota Department of Social Services Out-of-school time: Provides resources for schools and communities who want to offer structured and safe environments for children when they are not in school through grants, training, technical assistance and program development.

South Dakota School Age Care Alliance: Promotes quality out-of-school time programs for children and youth through professional development and public advocacy.

South Dakota Voices for Children: the only nonprofit, statewide organization in South Dakota that has as its sole purpose improving the lives of all South Dakota children through program and policy advocacy. South Dakota Voices for Children serves as the lead organization hosting the South Dakota Afterschool Partnership.

The South Dakota Afterschool Partnership is interested in learning more about your experiences as a student, parent, teacher, provider, policymaker or advocate on after-school in South Dakota.

Please submit positive stories to be highlighted on this website. If chosen you will be contacted for more information prior to posting your story! To have your program highlighted please email the following information to: afterschool@sdvoicesforchildren.org.

• Your story
• A photo, if possible
• After-school Program Name
• City
• State
• Program contact (name, phone and email address)
• Your contact (name, phone and email address)

Stay informed on Afterschool:

Sign up to receive newsletters and e-mail alerts about state and federal policy issues and the latest publications on research and best practices in the after-school field.

Tell Your Friends: One of the easiest things you can do to support after-school programs is to tell others about why your community needs these programs. Public support and concern can turn after-school into a priority for community leaders and policymakers.

Nearly everyone has a stake in after-school programs:

• Teachers and parents will want to know that after-school programs keep kids safe, improve academic achievement, increase school attendance and support young people’s positive and healthy development.
• Law enforcement and your neighborhood watch will want to know that after-school reduces juvenile crime.
• Your co-workers and employer will want to know that after-school programs can alleviate child care and safety worries of working parents.

Tell Your Leaders: The support of a school board member or superintendent, city council, mayor, governor, legislator or Congressional representative can make the critical difference in the success of after-school in your community. Find contact information for your leaders.

Participate in a Lights On Event! Watch this website for information about Lights On events in South Dakota and visit the Afterschool Alliance to learn more about Lights On Afterschool.

Involve your business: There are many reasons, and many opportunities, for the business community to join the after-school movement. After-school programs support working parents and guardians by providing a safe, enriching environment for youth during work hours. Additionally, after-school programs develop tomorrow’s workforce by teaching them crucial skills. To learn more, please read Business and Afterschool: The Perfect Partnership.

Start an OST Program: The vision of the South Dakota Afterschool Partnership is that every child of school age will have access to enriching opportunities in a safe and healthy environment during out of school time. You can help the children in your community have access to enriching after-school opportunities by starting a program. The South Dakota Department of Social Services Division of Child Care Services provides technical assistance to start after-school programs.

Invest in our work: Support the work of the South Dakota Afterschool Partnership through a monetary donation.