TACOMA, Wash. – It's Lights On Afterschool Day, a celebration of the expanded learning opportunities available to children after the final school bell.

In Washington state, more than 180,000 kids are in after-school programs, but they're outnumbered by the number of kids who are alone or unsupervised, at more than 215,000, according to the " target="parent">Afterschool Alliance. Another 330,000 are waiting for a program.

One group serving Pierce County youths after school is Write 253, which has a number of programs including Louder Than a Bomb, which prepares teens for a team slam poetry festival in March.

"Programs like ours help create confident young people," said Michael Haeflinger, Write 253's executive director. "A lot of times, the kids that we work with maybe feel a bit on the margins, and so, by offering them a stage and a crowd, it helps them to become more confident."

Haeflinger said the program is creating a community of young poets in Tacoma.

Seventy percent of Washington parents say after-school programs reduce the likelihood that kids will engage in risky behavior.

Kathy Oehrling, who runs YMCA child care at Spokane's Farwell Elementary School, said kids likely would be unsupervised without this program. Oehrling, who provides learning opportunities for kids and also helps with homework, said parents are thrilled this exists.

"They're very pleased that we have them," she said, "because it gives them a place to be and to make friends and to be a part of something."

Haeflinger said Write 253 works to strike a balance between educating kids and supporting artistic expression.

"It's kind of a fun, engaging, enriching time for them to be creative," he said, "but then also, we're sneaking some poetic terms in there or we're working on explication or we're working on interpretation, and those are things that are going to help support them when they come back to school the next day."

Data from Afterschool Alliance is online at afterschoolalliance.org, and more on Write253 is at write253.com.


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Special state funding for mental health staff at Michigan public schools during the pandemic is ending this year, leaving schools scrambling to find ways to keep the professionals in the building.

The $240-million grant started in 2021, as students coped with challenges, from virtual learning and canceled sports to losing a loved one to COVID. Now, districts are seeking alternatives.

Diane Golzynski, deputy superintendent of business, health and library services for the Michigan Department of Education, said the options include a program known as the School Mental Health Apprenticeship Program to encourage people to choose mental health careers by giving them financial support.

"To pay folks who need to do their supervised practice internships in order to go into this field; it's to give them a small wage, so they can actually do that," Golzynski explained.

She pointed out districts can also apply for Medicaid matching funds for all their eligible work is eligible and use those dollars to keep mental health providers in schools.

Golzynski stressed the goal is to build a comprehensive school mental health system.

"We don't want to just put professionals in the schools, we want to put professionals in the schools that the schools need, because there's different types of professionals," Golzynski noted. "It might be a psychologist, it might be a counselor, it might a social worker, it might be a school nurse."

She emphasized her department is also working with the districts on how to best use their mental health staffers.

Critics might counter it is parents' responsibility to take care of their children's mental health needs. But Golzynski countered it is often in school where these issues are flagged or acknowledged.

"It's the schools partnering with the families to help support this child, so that the child can be the best learner possible," Golzynski asserted.

Golzynski added another school mental health funding program on the table offers a per-pupil allocation to each district.


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School districts around Washington and elsewhere may have celebrated School Lunch Hero Day on Friday, a salute to cafeteria workers - but food service employees are asking for more than just a pat on the back. They're asking for a wage that keeps up with inflation.

Washington State has about 6,500 school food service workers who make the average full-time equivalent of just over $54,000 a year.

Paul Buse-Bing is kitchen manager at Pine Lake Middle School in Sammamish.

"All the positions in the school district are important, and everybody works hard. But students who don't have a proper meal aren't getting nutritious food, then they're not capable of participating to their fullest extent in their school day. And so what we do is very important," he said.

This year, lawmakers denied a request from Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdahl to give paraeducators a $7/hour pay raise; in his re-election campaign he has said he intends to seek a more broad-based increase for classified workers next year.

Buse-Bing said as the cost of living has gone up, the relatively low wages are making it hard to find enough staff.

"We go through the school year a lot of times understaffed, and we don't have substitutes or other people to fill in when people get sick or go on vacation, and a lot has to do with the pay wage. Especially with the inflation," he added.

Many school districts say they are strapped for funding and need more state resources in order to
recruit and retain qualified workers.


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It's Teacher Appreciation Week, and there's some mixed news when it comes to how well South Dakota is compensating its teachers.

According to the National Education Association's annual Rankings and Estimates report, the national average teacher salary increased about 4% to nearly $70,000 a year between the 2021 and 2022 school years.

But adjusted for inflation, teachers still make 5% less than they did a decade ago.

President of the South Dakota Education Association Loren Paul noted that teachers there saw one of the highest salary increases across the country this year - a more than 5% jump.

"And the last three years, we've seen more than what is required by the state," said Paul. "So, hopefully we can continue that trend."

Despite the increase, South Dakota didn't shake its national salary rank of 49th, at just over $53,000.

The last time the South Dakota Legislature enacted a law to increase teacher pay was in 2016, when it raised the state's sales tax by $0.005.

South Dakota's highest ranking in the report of 27th was for its starting salary, which averages $43,000. Paul said that helps bring in new educators, but doesn't do much to retain them.

"Overall salary increases are tied to retention," said Paul, "and if you're losing them off the top faster than you can bring them in the bottom, raising the average is what's important, not just the starting salary."

He said teacher retention and shortages remain nationwide issues. North Dakota and Wyoming, which both rank higher, use state revenue from the fossil fuel industry to help pay teachers.