The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children, particularly students who attend highpoverty and low-performing schools. Services focus on helping children succeed academically by:
- Providing opportunities for academic enrichment, including tutoring services to help students meet state and local student performance standards in subjects such as reading, writing and math;
- Offering students a broad array of additional services, programs and activities, such as youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs, art, music and recreation programs, technology education programs and character education programs, that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating students and;
- Offering families of students served by community learning centers opportunities for literacy and related educational development.
Programs must serve students that attend high poverty, low performing schools and their families. Eligible entities may now (since 2015) use program funds to support expanded learning time (ELT) during the school day in addition to activities during non-school hours or periods when school is not in session.
Applicants can apply for funding in one of three categories: Traditional, ELT/Traditional and ELT.
ELT is the time that a local educational agency or school extends its normal school day, week, or year to provide additional instruction or educational programs for all students beyond the state-mandated requirements for the minimum hours in a school day, days in a school week, or days or weeks in a school year.
Entities receiving priority in this application are those that propose to serve students and the families of students who primarily attend high-poverty, low-performing schools as evidenced by:
- K-12th grade Free and Reduced Lunch rate of 40 percent and above; and
- Schools Identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CS) or Targeted Support and Improvement (TS) in 2019-2020