After School Funding Action Alert
CAPE and many other after-school program providers across Illinois are fighting to save its after-school programs. Due to an error in budgeting at the Illinois State Board of Education, the agency is cutting funding, resulting in 40,000 students across the state losing access to high-quality after-school programs. For CAPE, 10 of our 13 after-school program sites will lose $135,000 per site. This funding represents about half of CAPE’s operating budget.
There is a solution! Senate Bill 2943 will restore funding and prevent the most at-risk students and families from losing access to programs. This legislation will provide an additional $50,000,000 in after-school program funds — funds that are critically needed to meet the needs of Illinois families.
What can you do?
- Please click on this link to send a message to your legislator and ask for their support for this bill.
- Share this link with everyone you know to help spread the word about this critical issue
CAPE and our colleague organizations, including Family Focus, Metropolitan Family Services, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Enlace, Chicago Youth Centers and many others, are working with the ACT Now Coalition to advocate for this funding.
ISBE notified us in May 2023 that funding would no longer be available for our programs — more details are available here. Already, 6,000 students have lost access to programs in the state. We are fortunate that Chicago Public Schools was able to step in and provide some stopgap funding for programs for the 2023-2024 school year. But that funding is running out, and is not a permanent solution. We need your help today!
