Dozens of new locations offering free after-school programs will open to city kids this fall, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.
The 40 sites are part of a $331 million investment in universal after-school programming that City Hall secured during budget negotiations this spring.
“Now children from working class families will have a spot in after school programs where they can learn and, most importantly, where they can thrive,” Adams said from P.S. 152 The Evergreen School in the South Bronx.
The new locations, which include 37 public schools and three charter schools, will add 5,000 additional after-school seats for K-5 students starting in September, at a cost of $21 million.
The rest of the funding will be gradually rolled out to create nearly 20,000 more seats by fall 2027 — bringing the total kids served to 184,000 students at an annual cost of $755 million, City Hall officials said.
The investment marks the first major citywide expansion of the program in nearly a decade, according to the Adams administration.
Keith Howard, commissioner of the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, said the goal of growing after-school opportunities was to lift pressure on working parents, particularly in low-income neighborhoods.
Priorities included locations that didn’t already have after-school programs, low income neighborhoods, those with high rates of violent crime, and areas with a high number of students with disabilities or English language learners, Howard said.
“We selected the schools in collaboration with New York City public schools based on the highest need in the city,” he said.
The full list of new locations includes 14 public schools in the Bronx; 12 public schools in Queens; nine public schools and one charter school in Brooklyn; two public schools in Staten Island; and two charter schools in Manhattan.
With this expansion the total number of free after-school programs operating in New York City next year will be about 1,050, according to the DYCD.
New York Junior Tennis and Learning, an after-school program, was one of the first providers selected for the expansion and will operate out of P.S. 152, according to Udai Tambar, the president and CEO.
“We strongly believe that talent is universal but opportunity is not, and after-school programs like this give young people the opportunity to reach their full potential,” Tambar said.