Parental impacts of quality afterschool programming

Afterschool programming provides a lifeline for many working families throughout the United States, yet many parents struggle to find quality care that meets their needs. Parents who cannot secure adequate care experience a range of stressors that affect their ability to meet the mounting demands of balancing work and child supervision. The impacts of quality afterschool programming must be explored in order to advocate for greater access and choice. Without access to quality afterschool programming, children will continue to be put at risk, exposed to the dangers of self-care, and working parents will experience limited freedom to pursue personal and professional goals. While there is significant research that investigates the benefits of quality afterschool programming for children, little focus has been placed on the impact that afterschool programming can have on parents. Greater representation of parental voice is essential to designing and implementing afterschool programming that meets the needs of working families as well as to understanding the assumptions and biases that affect the child care decision-making process. A framework informed by heuristics and biases and social reproduction provided a lens to examine the values parents place on afterschool programming and how it creates time and space for socialization and opportunity. Using a qualitative approach, interviews were used to explore the unique narratives of parents and how afterschool programming has affected their lives. This study addresses the importance of parental voice in the design and implementation of school services and affirms the social value of afterschool programming.