School Age Community (SAC) Grant

Grants to Missouri local education agencies for programs that promote the positive development of children and youth. Funding is intended to offer services to children for afterschool programs. Funds may be used for a new program or to expand and/or enhance current afterschool programs, whether supported by public or private funds. For example, an awardee may use funds to align activities to help students meet local and state academic standards if those services are not part of the current afterschool program.

Applications for the SAC grant must be identified as one of the following:

New Services: Implementing a new program where no such service is presently being operated. The program must be new to the district.

Existing Services: Improving and/or expanding an existing program to serve more children than are presently being served or to improve the quality of the program.

Research indicates a safe, well-supervised, and enriching School Age Community Program’s (SAC) environment can greatly enhance the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development of children. Afterschool programs are not intended to extend the direct instruction of the classroom by using “right answer” materials and textbooks. However, parents, regular school staff, and most financial stakeholders including legislators want and need to know that academic support is taking place. All afterschool programs can support the academic development of participants by maximizing a variety of “teachable” moments to promote the cognitive, social, and recreational health of students. School Age Community (SAC) programs can also reduce the negative effects many children experience from being in self‐care (i.e., negative peer pressure, loneliness, boredom, fear, accidents, and poor school performance).

SAC Programs are those school‐based programs offering services to all children, including children with disabilities, from ages 5 through 12 (children must be less than 13 years of age), unless targeted students are under supervision of the court in which case the SAC program may serve students to the age of 19. SAC Programs can be provided to children enrolled during non‐school hours, after their daily class sessions or during other non‐school hours (i.e., breaks, holidays, or weekends). Additionally, SAC Programs should meet the needs of working parent(s) during non‐school days.

Minimum Standards: 

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s publication Working for Children and Families: Safe and Smart Afterschool Programs, there are nine components present in high‐quality afterschool programs. These include:

• Goal setting, strong management, and sustainability;
• Quality afterschool staffing;
  
• High academic standards;
• Attention to safety, health, and nutrition issues;
• Effective partnerships with community‐based organizations, juvenile justice agencies, law enforcement, and youth groups;
• Strong involvement of families;
• Enriching learning opportunities;
• Linkages between school‐day and afterschool personnel; and
• Evaluation of program progress and effectiveness.

In addition to the aforementioned nine components, the following are specific examples that should be found in a quality afterschool program:

• Academic enrichment learning programs, mentoring programs, remedial education activities, and tutoring services that are aligned with the challenging State academic standards and any local academic standards; and local curricula that are designed to improve student academic achievement;
• Well‐rounded education activities;
• Literacy education programs, including financial literacy programs and environmental literacy programs;
• Service‐learning;
• Youth development activities;
• Programs that support a healthy and active lifestyle, including nutritional education and regular, structured physical activity programs;
• Services for individuals with disabilities;
• Programs that provide after‐school activities for students who are English learners that emphasize language skills and academic achievement;
• Cultural programs;
• Telecommunications and technology education programs;
• Expanded library service hours;
• Programs that provide assistance to students who have been truant, suspended, or expelled to allow the students to improve their academic achievement;
• Drug and violence prevention programs and counseling programs;
• Programs that build skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including computer science, and that foster innovation in learning by supporting nontraditional STEM education teaching methods; or
• Career readiness and awareness activities.

DESE will award competitive priority points to applications that:

A) Propose to target services to students who attend schools listed as either comprehensive or targeted schools.

B) Operate SAC program year round, including the summer months, breaks, holidays (except legal holidays), inclement weather, teacher conference, and other days when public schools might not be in session.

C) Include a district (not site) applying for a SAC grant for the first time. First time is defined as no grant awarded to the district beginning with the 2014-5 school year to present.

D) Propose to operate in a school with higher percentages of free and reduced priced meals.