When California’s Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELO-P) was announced, most program directors focused on the exciting opportunity: finally having enough funding to serve more students and eliminate waitlists. What many didn’t anticipate was how maintaining staff-to-student ratios would become their biggest daily challenge as programs doubled or even quintupled in size.
The numbers tell the story. According to a Spring 2024 statewide survey by the Partnership for Children & Youth, 97% of school districts have dramatically increased their student service through ELO-P. Salinas City Elementary, for example, jumped from serving 400 to 2,000 students. The YMCA of San Diego County expanded from 8,000 to 14,000 students. With expansion comes the complex task of maintaining required staff-to-student ratios while dealing with the realities of staff recruitment, retention, and scheduling.
“ELO-P funding has been a game changer,” notes Jenel Edlund, Director of Special Projects at West Covina Unified School District. But with that game-changing opportunity comes game-changing challenges in staffing management.
Understanding the Scale of Growth
Recent data demonstrates the dramatic expansion of programs:
- Think Together added 107 new programs across 61 districts (a 27% increase)
- Salinas City Elementary increased enrollment from 400 to 2,000 students
- YMCA San Diego County expanded from serving 8,000 to 14,000 students
- Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) reported having three times as many families on waitlists prior to ELO-P
As noted by Lennox School District, “ELO-P has created opportunities for urban youth, created strong stable relationships with afterschool staff, and increased learning time by up to 25%.”
Using Competitive Pay to Maintain Ratios
The math is simple: you can’t maintain required staff-to-student ratios without keeping your staff. And in today’s competitive job market, programs are discovering that higher wages are essential for both recruitment and retention. This is especially critical when your program has doubled or tripled in size - losing even one staff member can put you out of compliance and force you to reduce student enrollment.
Programs across California are responding by strategically using ELO-P funding to stabilize their staffing through competitive compensation. Recent wage examples from the Spring 2024 survey show significant increases:
YMCA San Diego County increases since 2021-22:
- Youth leaders: $17.00/hr to $19.69/hr
- Site coordinators: $20.00/hr to $24.00/hr
Gilroy Unified partner agencies now pay:
- Program leaders: $24.00/hr -$25.00/hr
- Assistant site coordinators: $26.00/hr - $27.00/hr
- Site coordinators: $28.00/hr - $29.00/hr
The investment is paying off. Think Together reports a remarkable 95% staff retention rate between July 2023 and April 2024, allowing them to maintain consistent ratios even as they added 107 new programs. Pasadena Unified used competitive wages to successfully recruit 75+ teachers to support afterschool programs, giving them the staffing buffer they needed to handle growth.
Making the Case for Staffing Investment
While maintaining staff ratios may feel like a compliance burden, the data shows that stable staffing directly impacts student success. Programs that have successfully maintained their ratios through strategic staffing investments are seeing impressive results:
- arc documented a 6.4-day increase in school day attendance over one year - a direct result of having consistent staff building relationships with students
- At Oakland Unified, where stable staffing enables stronger student connections, 82% of program participants reported feeling more connected to school
- EDMO found that 81% of families reported improved homework completion, highlighting the impact of having sufficient staff to provide academic support
Finding Room in the Budget
The good news? ELO-P’s funding structure makes these staffing investments possible. The survey found that daily rates now exceed $16 per student for elementary schools in more than half (55%) of LEAs - a significant increase from previous funding that helps cover competitive wages while maintaining required ratios.
This higher funding level is making a difference - 77% of LEAs report that ELO-P provides sufficient funding to support quality programs, including proper staffing levels. As Armando Diaz, Vice President of Programs and Partnerships at Educare Foundation explains, “ELO-P funding has been instrumental in allowing us to provide a living wage for staff and deliver high-quality programs that support student success and address chronic absenteeism.”
Making Data Work for Your Staffing Challenges Using Attendly
As programs expand under ELO-P, maintaining proper staff-to-student ratios becomes increasingly complex. Attendly’s comprehensive after school platform helps programs tackle these challenges through several key approaches.
Our platform’s automated attendance tracking provides real-time insights about program utilization and capacity. Through integration with Aeries SIS, programs can maintain accurate student records and streamline data management. The platform’s registration management features, including waitlist functionality, help programs balance enrollment with available staffing capacity.
For compliance purposes, Attendly automatically generates reports documenting attendance and program utilization. This automation reduces administrative burden, with school districts using Attendly noting a 30% reduction in administrative tasks for schools using the platform. The platform’s centralized program management approach allows staff to monitor multiple sites and programs from a single interface.
Future enhancements to the platform will include expanded parent communication tools, further strengthening the connection between programs and families. The platform’s scalable infrastructure ensures it can grow alongside expanding programs while maintaining data security and integrity.
This technology-enabled approach to data management allows programs to maintain appropriate ratios while successfully expanding to serve more students through ELO-P funding.
All data and quotes sourced from “Spring 2024: Statewide ELO-P Survey ” by Partnership for Children & Youth
