WEBVTT

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Hi, my name is Jessica Taylor,
and I am a program director

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at the Florida Department
of Education.

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I was asked to be a
part of the expert panel

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on Structuring Out-of-School
Time

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to Improve Academic Achievement.

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District schools and providers
can help meet the needs

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of families by identifying
what their needs are early on.

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One of the recommendations
we gave in the practice guide

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for out-of-school time is
to maybe survey families.

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You might want to survey
families to identify the times

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that are most convenient
to these families,

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the days that are most
convenient for families,

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the location of services, as
well as what subject areas are

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of most interest to them.

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Another way that schools

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and districts can
encourage participation

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in afterschool programs
and learn more

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about what the interests
of students are,

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is really to talk
directly to students.

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And the persons with
the most direct access

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to them are their teachers.

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So it's important for teachers
to be aware of the programs

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that are available and
start talking to students,

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find out what their
interests are.

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If a student is really
interested in basketball,

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perhaps the program that
would meet their needs best

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and encourage them
to continue to go

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to an afterschool program
is to find a program

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that has basketball
interrelated or incorporated

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into the afterschool
program itself.

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It is difficult to
encourage participation

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if a family doesn't
know who you are,

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what your organization does, and
what services you can provide.

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One way that schools have really
been able to encourage families

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to participate is to have
what is called Provider Fairs.

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Sometimes this happens
at a school level,

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sometimes this happens
at a district level.

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And schools and districts
organize this,

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and they can invite
providers to come.

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Each provider would have a booth
and be able to talk to parents

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about what their
program has to offer,

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what subjects they might
provide tutoring in,

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their setup in general-do
they provide snacks,

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do they provide time

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for homework assistance-where
their location is,

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if they provide services
at the school site,

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and even if they
provide transportation.

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So that's really a great
partnership to have

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between the school and
district to provide this venue

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for families to come and really
learn more about the programs

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that are available to them.

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Another thing that's
really important for school

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and district staff to do to
talk about what the programs are

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with eligible families
is to make sure school

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and district staff know
about these programs.

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It sounds like an easy thing
to do, but it really requires

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that everyone in the school
is at least familiar enough

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with the program to answer
some basic questions.

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The basic questions might be
about what the program is,

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what it has to offer, where
these programs are located,

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who the parents should contact

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if they have further
questions, and how they sign up.

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Attendance monitoring can
be particularly important

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for a provider to help identify
some areas that they need

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to become better in because
maybe there is an area

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that they are deficient in,

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so that's why students
are not coming back.

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But it also is helpful

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to identify maybe some basic
reasons why a student is not

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attending, and that may
be just because the times

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of the services aren't
convenient.

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Providers should
monitor attendance daily,

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not just once a week,
but every day attendance,

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to find out if a
child is missing.

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One thing that they can do
pretty easily is to find

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out from the school
staff was the student

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in attendance during
the school day.

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This is step one to be
able to decide whether

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or not the student was not
there because they were sick

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or because they couldn't
attend after school.

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If a child can't attend
services after school it may be

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for variety of reasons.

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One reason that a child may
not be able to attend is simply

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because of the convenience.

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They may not have transportation
to be able to get back

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to their home, or it may be

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in a location that's not
easy for them to get to.

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The sooner a provider
identifies these issues,

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the sooner the provider,
the school,

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and the parents can
work together

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to find an alternate location
or even an alternate program

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that would better meet
the needs of the family.

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State departments of education
have a strong role in recruiting

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and retaining students in
out-of-school-time programs.

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One way that they can do
this is by providing schools

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and districts themselves with
templates, templates that talk

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about the out-of-school-time
programs, as well as brochures

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or other marketing materials

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that may be appropriate
for those schools.

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In Florida we monitor
several districts

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and providers on
an annual basis.

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Through this monitoring process
we are able to identify some

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of the best practices that
we see districts are using

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and implementing to
recruit students as well

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as what providers are doing to
recruit students to participate.

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What the state has done is
take these best practices back

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to the state and provide
them to all the districts

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and all the providers in a
format that they can use.

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Sometimes we provide these best
practices in conference calls,

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or we may send out e-mails to
a Listserv to let providers

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and districts know of a best
practice that's occurring

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in the state.