Reasons to Get Involved
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*As many as 15 million children are left unsupervised during non-school hours.
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*35% of twelve-year-olds are left alone regularly while their parents are at work.
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*Juvenile crime triples when the school bell rings at the end of the day.
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*Children, ages 6-17 have a 7 times greater risk of being a victim of a violent crime (Examples: murder, violent sex offender, robbery, assault) during after school hours.
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While the work day grows longer for working parents, the school day has not. The gap is as much as 25 hours per week for some families.
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Polling nationally shows that 87% of working mothers say the hours after school are when they are most concerned about their children's safety.
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70% of school-age youth in low-income Travis County zip codes do not have access to afterschool programming.
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Each year's class of dropouts will cost the country more than $200 billion during their lifetimes in lost earnings and unrealized tax revenue.
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American business currently spends more than $60 billion each year on training, much of that on remedial reading, writing, and mathematics.
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Every dollar invested in afterschool programs will save taxpayers approximately $3, according to a study by the Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College.
* http://www.ctanweb.org/why.htm