After-School School

Striving to keep kids out of trouble and in good academic standing, three Orange County school districts will soon launch after-school programs funded by multimillion-dollar federal grants.

The Santa Ana, Placentia-Yorba Linda and Ocean View districts won U.S. Department of Education funding totaling $4.2 million over three years to give kids a safe haven while their parents work. Eighteen other California school systems, including several in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, secured grants.

The free after-school programs, set to begin this fall, will allow campuses to essentially stretch the school day through 6 p.m., replacing the hours that many kids return to empty homes with study time.

Targeted at inner-city and rural schools, the grants are touted as a way to reduce crime, keep kids secure when their parents aren’t around and help students meet increasingly stringent academic standards.

The federally funded programs will be launched just weeks after Los Angeles County embarks on a similar $74-million after-school child-care initiative at 225 elementary schools. One hundred Los Angeles Unified and 125 schools elsewhere in the county with high percentages of students on public assistance will receive the county funding from surplus welfare money.

Taken together, the federal and county programs constitute the first wave of the extended-day learning phenomenon sweeping the nation. In addition to the federal and local programs, the California Legislature dedicated $50 million to after-school programming last year, an amount Gov. Gray Davis hopes to increase.

While affluent families have long possessed the means to keep their children occupied after school with everything from gymnastics classes to French tutorials, such opportunities often elude the poor.

“This is a very significant trend,” said UC Irvine education professor Joan Bissell, who studies after-school programs. The programs address three major societal concerns, she said: boosting student performance, keeping children safe and out of trouble after school, and providing a place where they will not need to spend hours alone.

Studies of similar programs show an improvement in academic performance, a boost in pupil attendance and a drop in neighborhood crime and vandalism, Bissell said.

As envisioned, the programs will be a far cry from the low-cost, after-school offerings of years past, many of which stressed soccer and dodge ball but skimped on scholastics.

Instead, students would typically receive a snack, then get one-on-one tutoring in reading or math, tap out a note to an e-mail pal, finish up homework and even engage in conflict resolution training. Parents also can partake, joining classes that help them help their kids.

“Most of my parents work two jobs, not one,” said Christine Anderson, principal of Santa Ana’s Harvey School, which will split $1.8 million over three years with King and Diamond elementaries. “There is a pressing need for children to learn as well as have quality child care in this high-crime area. . . . When we put out notice about this program, I expect I will be overrun.”

The Los Angeles effort is expected to be a boon for parents who have not been able to find work--or accept a job--because it will operate for at least four hours after the close of the school day.

“We’ve gotten quite a few calls from parents wanting to get involved in this program,” said John Brendt of the Los Angeles County Office of Education. “We’ve received inquiries from a few schools as well.”

In the federal program, 176 school districts nationwide received $93 million for after-school programs. The grants were offered through the 2-year-old 21st Century Community Learning Center program.

California school officials from Eureka to San Diego will spend the summer ironing out details of their programs, which will be individually tailored for community needs. Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school district, captured $2.6 million, the largest federal grant this year.

“We’re finding that the hours between 3 and 6 p.m. are the most important hours of the day,” said Supt. Robert Fraisse of Ventura County’s large, poor, mainly minority Hueneme School District.

“Those are very vulnerable hours for kids, a time when many parents aren’t home and kids need things to do,” he said. “We as a country need safe places for our kids to go, and schools are logical places.”

The Orange County school districts are pairing up with community groups, UC Irvine and city park and recreation departments to plan their programs.

Many schools say they plan to offer important extras that were lopped during tight budgetary times: art, music and drama lessons, as well as counseling and violence prevention programs.

Diamond School students will be able to learn recorder and keyboard. Sun View School in Huntington Beach is getting $600,000 over three years and will bring in members of a storyteller’s guild to read to children.

“We have 15 hours a week written into the grant for counseling,” said Frances Byfield, principal of Santa Ana’s King School. “That’s five hours at each site. We don’t have any counseling at the elementaries right now, so we’ll take it.”

Count Esther Hernandez, a mother of three students at Topaz Elementary in Fullerton, among those interested.

She hopes children from her neighborhood will get to spend time with role models, learning math and computers, instead of playing in the streets.

“I’ve been very worried about the community, because of the lack of education among parents,” Hernandez said. “I hope programs like this will help the children advance in education. I hope this program will help the Hispanic community do better in the future.”

The popularity of scholastically based after-school options is heightened by recent changes in law, which slash the number of bilingual classes for English learners and hold schools accountable for student performance.

That’s one reason Topaz Principal Dorie Staack modeled her program as a community after-school “academy”--a place of energetic learning that will keep kids hooked on their studies even after a long day of regular classes.

“With the new social promotion and retention policies, we’re being asked to double-dose,” said Staack, one of four Placentia-Yorba Linda principals sharing $1.8 million over three years. “We need to provide additional learning opportunities for students who are not meeting their grade-level expectations.”

While extended-day programs are expected to mushroom, their ultimate success hinges on whether they support school reform efforts without boring kids stiff, predicted Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy.

“We’re just embarking on this big social experiment called extended-day learning,” he said. “But can we expand these programs in a high-quality way?”

Times staff writers Louis Sahagun and Fred Alvarez contributed to this report.