Nebraska after-school, summer programs wait for more than $6 million in federal funds

Carrie Lienemann, the director for North Platte’s Kids Klub Afterschool and Summer program, recalled watching a student cross the finish line at its annual 5K. He was struggling to finish, and Lienemann said the other kids and families were cheering him on as he kept pushing to the finish line.

“He fell into my arms, just like so tired at the end,” she said. “I gave him a big hug, and all of our kids who had finished and their parents were lined up along the road clapping as he came through, and he looked in my eyes and he said, ‘Miss Carrie, I've never had anyone cheer for me before.’”

Lienemann has been director of the after-school and summer program for 16 years and has a lengthy list of ways it supports kids. She said she’s concerned about what the loss of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant — which helps fund four of the seven sites in North Platte — could mean for the students she helps serve.

“I wake up and I've lost a lot of sleep over it, so it does give me personal stress because I care so deeply about it,” Lienemann said. “It's not pen and paper writing a grant because you want money. It's writing a grant pen to paper because you're providing something that means so much to the students and their families.”

The federal government withheld funds to after-school programs across the nation, including about $6.5 million that typically goes to Nebraska. This is in addition to President Donald Trump’s request earlier this year to completely cut the federal grant program in the next budget cycle.

Nicole Everingham, development director at Collective for Youth in Omaha, said the grant is the only federal funding source available for after-school programs. Without it, services to about 17,000 Nebraska students could be impacted.

“Sites may be consolidated,” Everingham said. “Sites may have to think about staffing structures differently. Sites may not open their door come August and September to be able to serve students. They may not be able to finish their summer programs without the funding.”

As of 2022-23, there were about 65 after-school clubs in urban areas, and 77 in rural areas, according to a University of Nebraska Medical Center Munroe-Meyer Institute report. Everingham said cities like Omaha and Lincoln will have a better chance of making up lost funding compared to rural after-school programs.

“Luckily, in Omaha and Lincoln, we have a lot of community support, and we have a lot of community partners, so we can diversify our funding a little bit more,” Everingham said. “When you start to get out to the rural programs, there's less community partners because there are just less in general, and then there's just less in terms of financial support, so once you take away that 21st Century lifeline, the program isn't able to maintain itself.”

In Nebraska, the federal grant has supported sites for more than two decades.

“Some of these sites are very entrenched in their communities and have a large presence and have helped youth achieve academically, maybe preventing them from being part of the juvenile justice system and just really have provided a strong foundation for a lot of students in our communities,” Everingham said.

Joel Bramhall, director of federal programs and director of the Cardinal Community Learning Centers at Crete Public Schools, said he sees the value of after-school programs every day.

“They could be getting into mischief or watching television, but rather, they're in an after-school program where they're being engaged in a well-managed, caring and fun learning environment,” Bramhall said. “To me, that's a win-win for everybody.”

Another benefit to after-school and summer programs, Bramhall said, is that they give parents peace of mind while they continue their work days.

“You're going to have employees who can work extended hours because they know that their child is supervised, safe and secure in a good learning environment, so parents can stay at work longer,” Bramhall said.

He added that the Crete program tries to engage families in events throughout the year to show what activities and resources their children have access to in the program. They also include interpreters at these events to help reach the 60% of students and their families who speak a language other than English.

“It's just those activities, I think, that are special, that provide not only students, but also families, a personalized interaction with the school,” he said.

Bramhall said the school sees better academic and behavioral outcomes for students involved in the after-school program, where students learn financial literacy, improve their reading and explore STEM, among other activities.

“When their parents come to pick them up at 5:30 or 6, they don't want to leave. They say, ‘No, I'd rather stay here,’ and it's like, well, we're actually closing, you do have to leave,” Bramhall said. “But it does strike a chord with a lot of our staff. We're putting students first, and here they are saying we want to stay with you because we are learning. They see the value in it.”

Back in North Platte, Lienemann has a similar list of activities. She said students in the after-school program have been involved in clubs like origami, cooking and 3D art.

She said the two main challenges facing after-school programs are funding and staffing. These needs lead to students ending up on a wait list — or as Lienemann calls it, a wish list. According to Collective for Youth, for every one student in an after-school program in Nebraska, there are four waiting to join.

“We hate it when we have to turn people away and put them on our wish list, but we try really hard to call [families] as soon as we can … get someone hired, and get kiddos off of those lists,” Lienemann said.

Without the federal after-school funding, Lienemann said she worries that families who need the program will be unable to access it. But in the meantime, she plans to keep cheering the kids in her program on, whether they are pushing to finish a 5K, learning to swim or discovering new careers in STEM and other fields.

“I think that we have to make sure that whatever happens in our kids' lives outside of after school, they're always being cheered on in the after-school space,” Lienemann said. “At the end of the day, that's all that matters.”