Monday, November 21, 2011

Low-Income Kids Need After-School Care

Low-Income school aged children in the United States need good options for adequate after-school care. When children do not have supervised after-school activities, there are numerous problems for society. To name a few problems, we deal with juvenile delinquency, children in unsafe environments, no supervised homework opportunities, gang activity, isolated children, children without peer support, and children without positive adult role models. The list of problems for unattended children goes on and on. When these issues are not addressed for our children, we as a society deal with other social issues when these children become adults.

From a conflict theory perspective, we look at the issue of the unequal distribution and control of resources. Let’s look at it from an income perspective. In most low-income working families, there are no adults at home after school to watch the children. In 2 parent homes, both parents are likely working and in 1 parent households, that parent is likely working and not at home after school to supervise the children. In some households, the parent(s) will arrive home after normal working hours of around 6pm. This is not the case in every family, but we will simply address the time between school letting out and roughly 6pm. Typically children have about 3 hours during this time on a regular school schedule. The low-income parents cannot afford after-school care for their children, so the kids are either left unattended, or if they are lucky, they can attend a free or low-cost after school program.

For middle to upper income families, the children, for the most part are not left unattended after school. In some cases, one parent is at home after school because the family may not need 2 incomes contribute to the family financial well-being. In other cases where both parents are working or in single parent middle to upper income homes, the parents are able to pay for after school care or activities to keep the children attended until after work.

Conflict theory applied to this problem works because the lower socioeconomic class is perpetuated when, in part, the poor kids are creating trouble after school and getting themselves into trouble with the law or not performing well at school. Because of these issues, they, in turn also become low-income due to lack or skills, confidence or incarceration.

Through a Functionalists’ perspective, the institutions that are affected by kids being unattended are numerous. The family is affected because there is stress involved with not having enough money to survive, let alone pay for after school care. The school system also is affected because when kids do not have help with homework, they may fall behind at school and ultimately become low-achievers. The low income kids may be teased by other classmates at school (and have their self-esteem affected) because they are doing poorly at school, and also because they are not participating in the same after-school activities that the upper income kids are. Another institution affected by the unsupervised kids is law enforcement and the criminal justice system. When kids are unattended, they tend to have more opportunity to commit crimes or be mischievous. This is when law enforcement comes in and arrests the kids or addresses these deviant behaviors.

In summary, society is affected now and/or later from having kids unattended after school. A solution for this is to provide good quality after school care and/or activities for low-income kids that is either free or extremely affordable. The part of this problem that I work on is getting funding for a local Boys & Girls Club located in Sandy Utah.

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