Council Update: Quality afterschool programming benefits children in numerous ways
A study of Prime Time Palm Beach County’s Quality Improvement System found long-term benefits of quality afterschool programming to children, Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County staff shared at a recent board meeting.
The 10-year Validation Study, conducted by Dr. Charles Smith, found that:
- QIS dramatically increases children’s access to high-quality afterschool programming.
- QIS produces impacts at high and moderate fidelity, meaning even lower-quality programs involved in QIS benefit children.
- QIS immediately improves quality in programs, and then helps sustain it; reduces relationship disruption; and has a positive impact on children’s social-emotional learning.
- Prime Time’s QIS System is supported with funding from Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County.
In other business
Child First: The Council approved a contract amendment with Center for Child Counseling to serve more Child First clients, after a pervious provider contract was terminated. The increase in funding is not to exceed $620,000, with a total amended allocation not to exceed $1.58 million for fiscal year 2019-2020.
Spring Book Fairs: The Council authorized the purchase of up to $300,000 in books for the “A Book for EveryChild” campaign. As part of the campaign to encourage summer reading, CSC hosts book fairs at all public Palm Beach County elementary schools, providing books to more than 90,000 students. This is the seventh year the council has hosted free books fairs for students.
New Officers: The Council elected new board officers, including: Thomas Bean as chair; Jose Luis Rodriguez as vice chair; and Vincent Goodman as secretary.
Data Science Project: A project examining the Council’s data by the Florida Data Science for Social Good Program found that, based on preliminary findings, the Council’s investments in our community have a positive impact on participating families. Using data from children born in 2012 and 2013, whose families participated in Council programs, researchers found:
- CSC has succeeded in engaging and enrolling families who are most in need of services and supports to help their children thrive.
- Pregnant women at risk for a poor birth outcome who enroll in CSC services experience over a half pound increase in their baby’s birth weight, when compared to mothers with similar risk profiles who had not received services.
- Children in families enrolled in CSC services within the first five years of life were more likely to increase their scores on measures of kindergarten readiness.
- Both the birth and kindergarten readiness outcomes are irrespective of time or dosage. In other words, even a little bit is of benefit.
- Analyses for the cohort demonstrate that a child’s birth outcome is a vital contributor to a child’s kindergarten readiness.
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About Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County
The Council is a local, special-purpose government created by Palm Beach County voters in 1986 and reauthorized in 2014. For more than 30 years, it has provided leadership, funding, services and research on behalf of the county’s children so they grow up healthy, safe and strong.
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