Although parents want to enroll their kids in summer academic and enrichment activities, lack of affordability and access stop them, according to a survey of more than 1,200 California parents, including those from the Central Valley.

On March 11, the results of a survey conducted in the fall of 2009 were released by Public Agenda at a California Legislative Task Force on Summer and Intercession Enrichment hearing at the capitol in Sacramento. Highlights of the survey findings, conducted in English and Spanish, include:

• Enrollment.  59% of California parents did not enroll a school-aged child in a summer program or did so for less than half the summer.
• Budget.  Among parents who did not enroll their child in a summer program in 2009, nearly half (46%) say there was a program they were interested in but they couldn’t afford due to changing finances. 65% of parents surveyed wish they knew about more summer programs that fit their budgets.
  
• Academics + Enrichment. 76% of parents want summer programs that have a mix of activities including academics. Yet while a majority of parents say that having their child do academics and summer enrichment activities is essential during the summer, more than half of all parents did not send their child to a program that had any academics, and 41% did not send their children to programs with enrichment activities.
  
• Concern for Summer Time. 51% of parents indicate that summer is the most difficult time to make sure their child is well taken care of and has interesting things to do. Parents expressed concern about how their children spend their summer hours: 25% are concerned that their children will fall behind academically, 24% are concerned with free time and boredom, 21% are worried that their children won’t get enough exercise or  outdoor activities, and 16% worry about their child getting into trouble due to lack of supervision.
• Summer Essentials. What parents say is “absolutely essential” for their child to do in the summer:  spending more time with family (63%), time for academics so as not to fall behind in school (58%), develop child’s own interests and hobbies (57%), and doing fun activities that help enrich their child’s learning (56%).

For rural, lower income, African-American, and Latino parents, access to quality programs is a particular problem.

• 43% of parents living in rural areas indicate that quality summer programs are not available in contrast to  about 25% of parents in urban and suburban areas.
• Lower income parents (household income less than $35,000 a year) are twice as likely as higher income parents to say that there are no high quality summer programs available in their area.
• 32% of Latino parents and 31% of African-American parents were more likely to say that there were no quality programs available in their neighborhood.

The call to action for the afterschool community is to collaborate on the communication and promotion of affordable afterschool programs available to parents throughout the region. Let’s continue to ensure that children are safe, healthy and being developed in well-rounded ways during summer.

For more information and a copy of the full report, funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, log onto www.publicagenda.org