In Baltimore, Md., students in the Digital Harbor afterschool program take advantage of hands-on activities, working with technology and developing skills like how to design a website, create mobile apps and make podcasts. On the opposite coast in Santa Ana, Calif., students in The Wooden Floor afterschool program learn ballet and modern dance from a group of instructors that includes internationally recognized choreographers, artists and dancers; receive one-on-one tutoring and homework help; and take part in life-skills and character-building workshops. In both cities, parents of children in these programs benefit from greater peace of mind while at work knowing that their child is in a supportive and enriching environment when the school day ends.

More than a decade of research shows that afterschool programs across the country are an integral support for children, families and communities. Each day after school, quality afterschool programs are keeping kids safe; inspiring them to learn; serving as a source of support and comfort to working families; and even helping working parents be more productive at work and keep their jobs.

Given the difference that afterschool programs can make for children and families, important questions about scope and demand arise: How many children are in afterschool programs? How many families want to enroll their children in an afterschool program? And how many children are unsupervised after school who are missing out on the learning opportunities afterschool programs have to offer?

America After 3PM began in 2004, precisely because of the absence of reliable data about such topics. That year, the Afterschool Alliance set out to fill the information gap, conducting what was at that point the most in-depth study on how children spend their time after school.

The 2014 America After 3PM edition spans a decade of data chronicling how children spend the hours between 3 and 6 p.m.—the hours after school ends and before parents typically return home from work. Together with its predecessor reports, it will serve as a resource for policy makers, educators, parents and advocates on the trends of afterschool program participation, demand for afterschool programs, and the number of children who are alone and unsupervised during the after school hours.

Since 2004, America After 3PM has provided not only an exhaustive account of how children and youth spend their afterschool hours at both a national and state level, but also detailed the level of parent satisfaction with afterschool programs; barriers to participation; and disparities in both by income, race, ethnicity and community type. The 2014 America After 3PM builds on previous iterations of the study, describing activities and supports provided by afterschool programs—including additional data on children’s physical activity; snacks and meals; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); and the outcomes and benefits associated with participation in afterschool programs.

The report looks at children participating in afterschool programs and children missing out on afterschool opportunities. It examines who is in afterschool programs, the types of activities offered in programs, satisfaction with program quality, and what parents say about the benefits that afterschool programs provide their children and their families. It also provides an overview of those who are unsupervised after school; an overview of children who would be enrolled in an afterschool program if one were available to them; and analyzes differences in the demand for afterschool programs by income, race and ethnicity to examine the opportunity gaps that persist.

Additional resources related to the 2014 America After 3PM report, accessible at http://afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM, include state-specific fact sheets as well as fact sheets on the Hispanic and African-American communities. Throughout 2015, special reports on physical activity and healthful eating, STEM, communities of concentrated poverty and summer learning opportunities will be released.

​A report on a survey of close to 14,000 parents and guardians nationwide finds a jump in reported participation in afterschool in the U.S. over the last decade. Some 18 percent of children in the surveyed households took part in an afterschool program in 2014 — equivalent nationally to about 10.2 million children. That compares with 15 percent in 2009 and 11 percent in 2004. At the same time, unmet demand for afterschool programming is large; extrapolating from the survey findings, the report says that 19.4 million more children would be enrolled in afterschool if a program were available to them. A fact-sheet offers the survey’s summer learning findings, including an 8 percentage point increase since 2009 in the number of families reporting a child’s participation in summer programming. Wallace was one of the funders of the survey.