Senator Kamala Harris introduced the Family Friendly Schools Act, which would create afterschool and summer programming to align the workday with the school day to help working families.
It would award five-year grants of up to $5 million to school districts to work with community partners to create developmentally appropriate afterschool activities like academics, music or athletic programs. These schools would also have free full-day programming on days that schools are closed for parent-teacher conferences and other days that are not federal holidays.
The bill would not affect the number of hours teachers and staff work, unless they choose to work more hours to earn more income; additional educators would come to school to work during the extended hours. The legislation would provide $1.3 billion annually for 21st Century Community Learning Centers to allow up to 1.8 million more children to have access to summer programming.
The bill, which is also sponsored by Senators Kirstin Gillibrand, Richard Blumenthal, Jeff Merkley, Sherrod Brown and Michael Bennet, has the support of organizations including American Federation of Teachers, Center for American Progress and the Institute for Educational Leadership.
Wealthier families are able to pay for afterschool activities for their kids and this bill would make the opportunities accessible for more families, Sarah Cohodes, a professor of economics and education at Teachers College at Columbia University, toldshows that these programs generally increase mothers' labor force participation, particularly for low-income women.
Timothy Daly, the founding partner of the education non-profit EdNavigator says the bill will help more parents, and especially mothers, stay in the workforce and advance to leadership positions. Daly thinks that employers would welcome the legislation. “When employees miss work, it hurts the employer and can lead to tension between the employer and employee. One of the biggest reasons we see people struggling to remain in a job is childcare related,” he toldin an interview.
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