AFTER SCHOOL Act Proposes $15M Annually for Youth Programs in High-Risk Counties, Kicking Off 2026

A new piece of legislation, officially titled the "Advancing Frequent and Tailored Education to Rebuild Safe Communities and Help Orchestrate Opportunities and Learning Act" – or the much catchier "AFTER SCHOOL Act" – is on the table. Its main mission is to channel federal grants towards after-school programs for students in grades 6 through 12. Specifically, it's looking to inject $15 million each year from fiscal year 2026 through 2029 into these initiatives. The core idea is to fund programs in counties where the juvenile offense rate is 10% or higher, aiming to provide constructive alternatives for young people.

Who's on Deck for Funding?

So, who exactly can apply for these grants? The bill lays out two main types of "eligible applicants." First, there are "local educational agencies" – think your public school districts that serve secondary school students, as defined by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Second, "nonprofit organizations" can apply. These are your typical 501(c)(3) tax-exempt groups, like a local Boys & Girls Club or a community youth center, provided they have a track record of running after-school programs.

The key condition, though, is that these applicants must be operating in or serving a county with a "juvenile offense rate" of at least 10%. The bill defines this rate as the percentage of violent offenses committed by individuals 19 or younger, based on the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. The Attorney General's office will be responsible for figuring out which counties meet this threshold each year and publishing that list along with grant applications. If a school district gets a grant, they can either run the program themselves or team up with a nonprofit.

Beyond Babysitting: What These Programs Aim to Do

The money isn't just for keeping kids occupied. According to Section 2, the grant funds are meant to support after-school programs that achieve several goals: expanding learning opportunities (maybe extra help with homework or new subjects not covered in the school day), fostering skill development (like coding clubs or trade skills workshops), providing leadership opportunities, and, crucially, offering a safe environment during those often unsupervised after-school hours. For a middle schooler in a designated county, this could mean access to a new robotics club, a sports league, or a mentorship program that simply wouldn't exist otherwise.

The Bottom Line and Keeping Score

The bill authorizes a total of $60 million over four years ($15 million for each fiscal year from 2026 to 2029) to get these programs off the ground or expand existing ones. To make sure the money is doing what it's supposed to, there's a reporting requirement. Any organization that gets a grant has to send an annual report to the Attorney General. This report needs to detail how many schools and kids were served, and what the program's successes and challenges were. The Attorney General then takes all these reports and rolls them into a summary for Congress. This system of reporting is the primary mechanism outlined in the bill for tracking effectiveness and identifying any hurdles these new or expanded programs might face.