MAP’s Executive Director Patrick Stanton on the State of Afterschool

January 8, 2026

As we enter the New Year and begin looking toward the spring, I find myself again reflecting on the state of afterschool in Massachusetts and across the country.

Like my last “State of Afterschool” post, this one is meant to invite conversation and shared reflection. What follows is shaped by what I have seen and heard while visiting programs, speaking with community stakeholders and policymakers, and working alongside advocates in early education, out-of-school time (OST), and related fields. It is not a comprehensive portrait of the afterschool landscape, nor is it the only perspective. I can only write from where I sit.

Over the last year, the afterschool field has absorbed a series of seismic shocks. One of the most profound has been the direct impact of policy and rhetoric targeting immigrant communities. MAP’s own data shows that 58 percent of afterschool providers have seen an increase in immigrant children in their programs over the past three years. For many programs, this has meant responding in real time to families navigating fear, instability, and uncertainty, often with limited guidance and even fewer resources.

At the same time, pressures have continued to mount on the very populations afterschool programs support. In August 2025, 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants were under threat of being delayed or cancelled altogether. In 2024, 21st CCLC served over 12,000 youth across the Commonwealth. The next month, SNAP benefits were also at risk. Afterschool programs often fill the essential role of helping kids to get something to eat and fill in the gaps that should never have existed in the first place. For many afterschool programs, food is not a “nice to have” offering but a core support that directly affects a child’s ability to learn, regulate, and feel safe.

As I have continued to learn and grow in this work, my understanding of what afterschool programs are, and how they fit into the broader ecosystem supporting children, has fundamentally shifted. At their most basic level, afterschool programs are educational spaces. The data is clear: children who participate in high quality afterschool programs demonstrate stronger outcomes in areas like math and literacy.

But that definition is incomplete.

Children go to afterschool programs to be seen and heard. They go to be fed, to be safe, and to be in community. They go to make sense of a world that can feel overwhelming, unpredictable, and at times unwelcoming. Afterschool programs are often where academic, social, emotional, and material needs converge, and where staff are asked to respond holistically even as surrounding systems fracture.

Despite these compounding challenges, demand for afterschool programs has not slowed. In fact, there is growing evidence that demand has accelerated. In 2020, America After 3PM reported that for every one child in an afterschool program, three more were waiting to get in. By 2025, that ratio had widened to one child enrolled and four waiting to get in, translating to more than 524,000 children statewide without access.

Afterschool programs are being asked to do more, for more children, amid increasing instability, while the systems that sustain them remain precarious.

And yet, if the past year has reinforced anything, it is that afterschool continues to be one of the most adaptive, responsive, and quietly essential parts of the child and family serving ecosystem. The question before us is not whether these programs matter. They clearly do. The question is whether we are willing to align policy, funding, and cross sector collaboration with the reality of what afterschool has become.