State expands after‑school and summer learning grants; officials pilot multiyear approach to build capacity

Vermont education officials told a Jan. 21 joint hearing they are expanding after‑school, summer and community‑school supports through a multiyear, tiered grant design under Act 78 and by coordinating those grants with existing federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21 CCLC) awards.

Yohan Asensch, who identified himself as representing the agency’s Expanded Learning Opportunity work, said the Act 78 pilot distributed roughly $3.7 million in multiyear awards in its first round and reached 11 of Vermont’s 14 counties. He said the initial pilot produced 17 awards and named about 73 partner organizations across the applications; officials estimated the awards represent new or expanded services for about 4,000 children.

Why it matters: Lawmakers are seeking strategies to expand equitable after‑school access and to reduce “after‑school deserts.” The session’s grants are funded by the state sales‑and‑use tax earmarked for the program; officials said the appropriation available for FY25 grew from the pilot’s $4 million to about $14 million for the current funding round.

Agency staff said the Act 78 approach uses three tiers: smaller direct support grants for new programs (program track), larger awards to establish self‑sustaining after‑school centers (center track), and regional or technical assistance grants to build provider capacity and statewide supports such as professional development, data systems and a community of practice. Officials also discussed a possible “regional provider” track for organizations that develop curricula and resources other groups can adopt.

Officials said the program is open to a broad range of providers — public, private and nonprofit — and that the pilot encouraged applications from community organizations as well as schools. Asensch said the program’s first-year pilot yielded strong interest: about 60 applications in the initial competition and roughly 27 applications for the smaller program track in the current round, representing an estimated 7,000 young people in proposed new or expanded services across 11 counties; the total funding requested across applications was about $9.2 million.

Officials acknowledged outreach gaps in the pilot year and said the agency partnered with Vermont After School and the Department for Children and Families to broaden applicant outreach for the current round. They said contracted transportation is an allowable grant expense but that programs were not required to provide transportation as a condition of application; applicants were asked to describe transportation plans.

The agency positioned Act 78 grants as complementary to the federal 21 CCLC program, which funds large multisite district efforts on a five‑year cycle. Agency staff said the Act 78 grants are intended in part as a “stepping stone” into larger 21 CCLC funding, with Act 78 supporting single‑site startup and capacity building and 21 CCLC supporting districtwide expansion.

Officials also described community schools as a separate but related model. The agency said community‑school pilots have grown from 16 to 28 schools across five supervisory units; that pilot work used federal COVID recovery funds and additional state funds and was supported by research partnership with the University of Vermont. Agency presenters said community schools acted as a “force multiplier,” enabling additional federal, state or philanthropic funding to expand local capacity.

Ending: Agency staff said more data and follow‑up materials will be provided to legislators, and that the administration intends to refine outreach and build technical assistance to expand equitable access.