The ICSD elementary school day ends at 2:00 PM, nearly an hour earlier than surrounding districts’ dismissal times. For many ICSD families, this extremely early end to the school day is a challenge as they struggle to find somewhere for their children to go. While some students participate in structured afterschool programs both within the district and in the community, many other students face endless waitlists, high costs, and transportation barriers that make these programs inaccessible. As demand for afterschool care continues to persist, the Tattler Editorial Board believes that it is necessary that ICSD takes more responsibility in expanding equitable afterschool opportunities for all elementary students.
Afterschool programs are crucial for both parents and elementary students. Many parents in ICSD rely on afterschool programs as a secure place for their kids to stay while they work, providing parents with the peace of mind that their children are safe. Afterschool provides kids with a chance to make new friends with peers across grades, improving social and developmental skills. Additionally, according to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, afterschool programs can uplift academic performance and school attendance rates. Afterschool programs also ensure that kids are spending time outside and interacting with others, deterring kids from spending long hours on screens, which have been shown to exacerbate behavioral and emotional stressors.
ICSD elementary schools are not without afterschool options, most notably, Caroline Elementary, Northeast Elementary, Fall Creek Elementary, Beverly J. Martin Elementary, Belle Sherman Elementary, and Cayuga Heights Elementary all have school-specific programs. Currently, each school-based program operates independently from the district, with its own enrollment guidelines, costs, and capacity limits depending on the space they inhabit. Many of these programs, like the Cayuga Heights School Age Program (CHSAP), are open only to students from that elementary school. “There is such a high demand within Cayuga Heights [that] we don’t accept other children,” program director Leah O’Connor explained. CHSAP, along with Northeast’s (NE) Kids Count, can only support around eighty students at a time, which is only a third of students at each elementary school. In a district with nearly 2,100 elementary students, many families across all of ICSD’s elementary schools are placed on waiting lists or are unable to enroll at all. These afterschool waitlists are extremely long, since waitlist spots are largely determined on a first-come-first-served basis. Students that qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, as well as students returning from a previous year of afterschool, are bumped up to the top of waitlists, but the wait can still be lengthy. One Cayuga Heights parent explained that they were “forced to wait two years on the waitlist for CHSAP,” making that time period quite stressful as they scrambled for afterschool alternatives.
Afterschool programs offered at the elementary schools are also very costly. Over a ten-month school year, tuition can add up to between 4,000 and 5,000 dollars. Students qualifying for free and reduced-priced lunch are offered need-based scholarships based on parent income. However, this support can be inadequate, ultimately still pushing students from enrolling. One Northeast parent says that “the price of afterschool for my two kids was crazy, I had to just send them home after school ended,” leaving their kids unsupervised for hours, while another South Hill parent says that, even with assistance, “the cost of afterschool is unsustainable in the long term.”
Community organizations like the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) and Ithaca Community Childcare Center (IC3) absorb much of Ithaca’s remaining demand for afterschool childcare, but at a steep price as well. The GIAC Afterschool Program’s yearly cost ranges from 2,200 dollars to nearly 5,500 dollars depending on a family’s income, similar to the elementary school based programs. For some families, despite help they receive from scholarships, the costs add up quickly, which can become a large burden.
To worsen this situation, most elementary school programs only run until 5:30 PM. Elementary schools in ICSD, unlike their secondary school counterparts, have no access to late bus services. This means that, regardless of which program a family enrolls in, the burden of a 5:30 PM pickup falls entirely on the parent or caregiver. For families without a car, the transportation gap renders these programs inaccessible, no matter the scholarship amount. For parents whose workday doesn’t end until 6:00 PM or later, it is extremely difficult to pick up their children earlier. NE Kids Count, for example, enforces its cutoff time with financial penalties: twenty dollars per child for pickups between 5:30 PM and 5:45 PM, and an additional dollar per minute thereafter. Furthermore, chronic lateness, according to the NE Kids Count website, is grounds for permanent dismissal. With many families already stretching to cover an over four hundred dollar monthly tuition, an unexpected late fee is a major problem.
There are concrete steps ICSD can take to begin closing this gap. Extending late bus routes to stop at elementary schools is a straightforward first step. Late bussing will ensure that all children who are in an afterschool program can make it home safely without charging parents extra. Many of the late bus routes already stop by the elementary schools and large neighborhoods, so this change would not be logistically complicated.
The district should also take on a greater share of the financial burden of afterschool programming. Programs like NE Kids Count and CHSAP operate within school bounds, but do not receive funding or aid from their respective schools. In fact, CHSAP pays Cayuga Heights Elementary School through insurance for using their facilities. Direct district support, or an effort to pursue federal grant funding could allow for tuition costs to decrease and ultimately lighten the load for both working families and the afterschool programs themselves. ICSD should also provide additional scholarships for afterschool programs, especially for students who receive free or reduced price lunches.
Furthermore, elementary school based programs need more space to be allocated by the district. Waitlists at afterschool programs are incredibly long as a result of limited number of spots available, which, as NE Kids Count director Tracy Robbins explained, is determined “based on the square footage of the space we’re allowed to use at the school.” By allowing afterschool programs to use more space such as classroom space, more families will have access to afterschool.
ICSD must also prioritize equitable access to afterschool at each elementary school. Enfield Elementary School, for example, does not have an official afterschool program. At times when afterschool activities are offered, they are supported by parent volunteers and not the school district. As a result, many Enfield parents have no secure place to send their kids. Enfield is among the more under-resourced ICSD schools, according to the 2025-2026 New York State Education Department report. That it also has the least afterschool support is not acceptable by any measure. Closing the gap in afterschool access across elementary schools will not only ensure that all kids are safely watched over, but that all kids are able to develop invaluable social and emotional skills beyond the classroom.
Now that the applications for afterschool programs have closed, many parents face a long summer of uncertainty trying to secure childcare for the fall. The Tattler Editorial Board believes that ICSD must take action. By expanding bus routes, providing funding, and reaching out a helping hand to underrepresented schools, the district can ensure that afterschool care is a resource that every family can turn to when they need it.
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