NEW YORK – Brooklyn Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant is trying to address parents’ concerns about child care costs by implementing an experimental extended 12-hour school day.
After the dismissal, there are still dozens of students in the building. The music lesson is in full swing, with little hands drumming to the beat.
In a nearby room, kids do jumping jacks and push-ups.
“I especially like gym because it helps me get all my energy out, so as soon as I get home I can just eat, watch Netflix or go to sleep,” explained fifth grader Alijah Winfield.
Dinner is served in the cafeteria before the kids go to coding class, dance or get homework help.
“Sometimes I can’t understand things. So when I get help here, it really makes it better and helps me understand more about what I’m learning,” said 11-year-old Yasani Williams.
This is the school’s first school year with extended hours. It’s a free initiative, launched by director Joanne Hunt after she noticed a post-pandemic drop in registrations.
“One of the biggest things we saw in almost all of the studies was that our families needed an extended day of aftercare,” Hunt tells CBS New York’s Hannah Kliger.
Staff say almost half of the school’s students are registered for the extended day, giving parents the option to pick up their children at any time between dismissal at 4 p.m. and school dismissal at 7 p.m. closes.
Arianny Espaillat works in a hospital and says the program has been a game changer for her two daughters.
“When it’s time to pick them up, they don’t want to go home. They say, ‘Mommy, why are you here?'” she said, laughing.
Emilia Guy also works at a school and has three children. Her daughter, Chelsea, comes home tired, but fed, exercised and with her homework completed.
“It allows us to jump back into the family dynamic of having a good time together. Sometimes they come home and if the homework isn’t done, it disrupts the time we actually spend with their family,” she said. .
Principal Hunt says she has already received requests to expand the program for the next school year.
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