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Q&A
School Day Plus (SDY+) program funding, implementation, and enrollment
3:06:58
ยท
3 min
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about the School Day Plus (SDY+) program's funding, implementation, and enrollment. Jeff Klein from the DOE provides details on the program's budget, operational sites, and enrollment statistics.
- $40 million invested in SDY+, with $15 million baselined and $25 million pending
- 70 programs signed on, 61 currently operating
- Over 2,000 seats filled, with potential for 685 more this school year
- Programs enrolling between 60-73% of available seats
Rita Joseph
3:06:58
Could we, the council invested 35,000,000 into additional extended day programs known internally as school day plus pilot.
3:07:06
However, 25,000,000 of this funding has not been baselined.
3:07:10
How many sites are signed into the SDY plus in the fiscal twenty twenty five and how many of these sites are operating?
Jeff Klein
3:07:17
So chair, actually the correct amount is 40,000,000 for the SDY plus not 35,000,000.
3:07:24
15 million was baselined and we are waiting the 25,000,000 to be baselined.
3:07:29
And as of March 7, there are 70 programs that have signed onto SDY plus and 61 programs are currently operating.
Rita Joseph
3:07:37
Well that's good.
3:07:38
See, we give money.
3:07:41
What is the process for a site to take on SDY plus seats and how long does it take for these seats to become operational?
Jeff Klein
3:07:49
Yes, thank you.
3:07:50
So programs in areas with a high economic need index, that's between 70100%, that have very few to no head start or extended day and year seats that are contracted to provide SDY seats are eligible to expand their services for those seats, that's an additional three hours and forty minutes per day.
3:08:08
So programs can begin extending their day as soon as they sign on, but of course in order for us to reimburse them for those extra hours, they need to amend their contract so their contract value allows for us to pay that out.
Rita Joseph
3:08:20
And you're working on amending the contracts and how long does that take?
Jeff Klein
3:08:25
That would be a question I can get back to you on if we get an average understanding of how long it takes to amend these specific contracts.
Rita Joseph
3:08:34
And the ones, the seats being funded by the council, how many are filled currently?
Jeff Klein
3:08:40
So with the 40,000,000 investment, there's a potential to serve over 5,000 seats if a program begins at the beginning of the school year.
3:08:47
So to date, we have over 2,000 seats filled and the potential for another six eighty five seats still to be filled this school year.
3:08:55
For programs that began operating last year and were able to market more, they're enrolling around 73% of their seats and newly enrolled programs are seeing a 60% enrollment percent.
Rita Joseph
3:09:07
And the goal is a %, right?
Jeff Klein
3:09:10
Absolutely.
Rita Joseph
3:09:12
I don't like those little numbers.
3:09:14
How do families learn about SDY seats at their site?
3:09:18
Do sites choose which families to convert their school day seats into an extended day seat?
Jeff Klein
3:09:26
So I know we do outreach to programs based on which zip codes become eligible or are part of our current outreach.
3:09:36
And as I mentioned earlier, when a program is eligible, they can immediately offer the services, they just attest to how many children, but then we have to amend their contract in order to pay them out.
Rita Joseph
3:09:52
How do families know they're eligible for these seats?
3:09:55
Is it through My City identified or families who did not fill out eligibility may be eligible and you direct them to my city, how does that work?
Jeff Klein
3:10:06
So we rely, and this reminds me of council member Steven's point about how the CBOs are really the best at recruitment because we rely on programs to share their available options with their community, SDY plus being an example.
3:10:21
Since it's only available in certain zip codes, as I said, we open up those zip codes to do the outreach and then it's denoted on the program's My School profile so families can be informed there.
3:10:31
But really the main goal is the program because they have relationships with their families that are already enrolled.
3:10:39
They know which seats they can convert.
3:10:40
They're embedded in the community.
3:10:42
They know the community's need.
3:10:43
So we rely on them and then as those seats open up, they are put on my schools.
Rita Joseph
3:10:48
So the the the secret the magic is the CBOs as partnerships to make sure recruitment is being done in these seats.