Durham Public Schools (DPS) holds limited availability in the elementary after-school care programs due to staffing shortages and a lack of funding.

The new implementation of Family Responsibility Zones, which mandates any child living within 1.5 miles of their school in DPS may not take the bus, also caused unease.

DPS houses 28 elementary and nine middle school aftercare programs. The lottery opened in March of last year for the 2024-2025 school year, and DPS had 2,200 applications but only offered spots to 1,622 students after applications closed in April. As of May, 637 students were on the waitlist. The number dropped to about 300 students after classes started in August.

The district is partaking in this selection process for the second year. Concerns about equitable access to the program have caused DPS to filter who secures a position in after-school care. As a result, parents have expressed concerns about their child not earning a spot in the program.

The Director of Community Education at DPS, Tracey Super-Edwards, said that registration for elementary after-school care programs has filled up quickly over the past few years.

“We have a high demand compared to the number of seats we have,” she said.

The increased demand for the elementary after-school program sparked a conversation about ensuring equitable access to registration on the day it opened.

“We heard from people where they were having computer issues or they didn’t have internet for that day,” Edwards said. “It truly wasn’t equitable access if there was an issue that came up on that particular day. [DPS] thought it would be best if we had a lottery system where there was a window of opportunity for everyone to go in and register, and then have a lottery to get seats.”

The program costs $205 per month with a $35 registration fee. Financial assistance can be applied for based on factors such as household size and income, according to Edwards.

Resources outside after-school care and public schools are available for students who do not get a spot in the program. Options like tutoring, Girls on the Run, or Y Learning through the YMCA are alternatives for parents to send their children after school, and the district can provide transportation to certain programs.

Edwards said many families have praised the after-school care rates for being more affordable than the community programs, such as the YMCA. Thus, there’s a larger demand for after-school care.

“Parents also like our program because it’s at their [child’s] school, students are familiar with their teachers and they don’t have to be transported,” she said.

Alexandra Valladares, a former DPS school board member who served from June 2020 to July 2024, said the lottery system for after-school care is advantageous but doesn’t eliminate the difficulties associated with the program’s restricted availability.

“With any service that is before or after the school day, there’s always been that drawback of limited spots,” Valladares said. “That’s definitely based on budget, staffing and processes that often feel cumbersome for families… I think [the lottery system] helps and does provide an opportunity for families, but it’s also about the process.”

A new cause for worry emerged this month, as Edwards said the district became concerned about an increased number of waitlisted students because of the Family Responsibility Zones implemented on Jan. 21. An announcement from the DPS Board of Education established walk zones 1.5 miles around 21 elementary schools in the district. State law does not offer school bus transportation within these zones, so families living in the area must determine how to transport their children to and from school. So far, the zones do not seem to be impacting waitlist numbers at after-school care.

“Our waitlist numbers have not gone up as of yet,” Edwards said. “But it’s still early on since [the zones] were just implemented about a week or two ago.”

Parents have expressed frustrations about being unable to admit their child in the after-school care program. Mariana, the mother of a 5th grader in DPS, who chose not to share her last name, said her child relies on services for speech pathology. Her kid also depends on the Exceptional Children (EC) department, but she’s been unable to earn a spot in after-school care since Kindergarten.

“Before and after-school care is something I wish my child would have because she has issues communicating, and I would like this benefit to be there for them,” she said.

Mariana, a stay-at-home mom, often helps her husband pick-up materials for his job, which falls within school dismissal time. Her children occasionally catch the bus and are picked up by her mother and stepfather, but after-school care would be ideal.

“I want DPS to offer more spots because they’re too limited,” Mariana said.

Kelly Cosby is a former Pre-K teacher and universal screening coordinator with the DPS Office of Early Education. She has advocated to provide at least two Pre-K classrooms at every elementary school in the county, and offer after-school care and transportation services to all DPS Pre-K families.

She said only two public elementary schools in Durham have been allowed to include their Pre-K students in after-school. These two schools use the DPS magnet application instead of the universal application used by the rest of the county locations offering public Pre-K.

“My rationale was that if there’s Pre-K at every elementary school then they could offer transportation,” Cosby said.

For many families, after-school care is crucial for their child to be able to attend Pre-K at all. Cosby also said the school board has discussed this issue, but she thinks they will likely deprioritize the goal in order to focus on K-12.

“[DPS is] having trouble filling the need for existing [elementary students’] after-school and transportation, but for a lot of families, if they can’t accept a Pre-K seat without access to transportation or wrap-care, that’s thousands of dollars [in value lost for them],” she said.

Cosby is also a mother to a 5th grader and an 8th grader in DPS. Each of her kids have been waitlisted in the DPS after-school care program some years, and as a result, had to sign up for private sites that offered transportation from the school.

“It was a little tricky but [the private site] offered care all the way up until the time the school did… they offered similar services, it was just unfamiliar and it was a daycare setting,” she said. “[My child] was hesitant but we were thankful to have options at all.”

In the years her children did get spots in DPS in after-school care, she said her and her husband had to act quickly.

“We were ready to go as soon as it went live,” she said. “If you didn’t have it signed in and ready to go, and if you didn’t push the button as soon as it went live, you were waitlisted. That’s a major equity issue.”

DPS created the lottery system for after-school care due to a concern surrounding equity. However, it’s proven not to be a final solution. Transportation slides from a meeting held by The Durham County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 18 include no mention of before or after-school care.

Low staffing for the after-school care program drives the need for a lottery system. Not having enough staff prevents schools from taking more students. Currently, there are 30 openings for staff members at after-school programs in DPS.

“In general, it’s hard to get staff at any school,” Edwards said.

Cosby cited pay rates as a possible reason for the under-met after-school services in Durham County. According to the DPS website, the current minimum wage for county employees is $15 an hour.

“I’m a little bit confused because we pay for the aftercare, so some amount of that money should go towards [staff] salaries,” she said. “You’d think that then you could hire more staff but the demand [for after-school] has never been met for as long as I can remember.”

Considering the age of middle schoolers, and their participation in extracurricular activities, the demand for after-school programs for middle school is lower and doesn’t require a lottery system in the county. Instead, they have open enrollment.

It’s unclear if waitlist numbers for after-school care will increase next year due to the Family Responsibility Zones and ongoing bus driver shortages. Cosby is concerned about equity issues surrounding the new zones.

“I think what they mean [by the name] is that it’s the areas where they’re not providing transportation because every family is responsible for getting their kids to school in different ways,” she said. “Sometimes the data is presented just as numbers and we need to remember that it’s people actually being impacted.”

The lottery application for the 2025-2026 school year will open on March 10 at 8 a.m. and close on April 11 at 5 p.m.

Edited by: Mackenzie Thomas and Stefan Stalker