The authors describe the landscape of out-of-school time opportunities in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. They identified summer and after-school programs in the county and mapped those programs so that funders and others can identify neighborhoods with few programs, high numbers of youth, and great need.

Improving Access to Out-of-School Time Opportunities in Allegheny County

Catherine H. Augustine, Maggie Hieber, Ellen Gracia, Devin Tierney, Logan Dick, Logan Elizabeth Robinson, Mekdes Shiferaw

ResearchPublished Apr 10, 2026

Out-of-school time (OST) programming benefits children and youth. These programs can keep kids safe after school and in the summer when parents are working; provide meals, mentoring, and prosocial peer experience; and have been found to be effective at improving academic and social outcomes.

The authors describe the landscape of OST opportunities in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. They identified summer and after-school programs in the county and mapped those programs so that funders and others can identify neighborhoods with few programs, high numbers of youth, and great need. This interactive map is available to the public.

Key Findings

  • Overall, government funding of OST programs increased between 2012–2013 and 2024, but some of the recent funding was in response to the coronavirus pandemic and has not been sustained.
  • Local foundation funding of OST programs has remained consistent, indicating continued valuing of OST programming. Survey responses from foundation representatives indicated that the majority of foundations will maintain a similar level of investment.
  • Despite fairly consistent funding for OST programs over time, OST program availability varies considerably for Allegheny County youth across neighborhoods. Although some neighborhoods have enough OST programs to serve their children and youth, other neighborhoods with the greatest needs do not have any OST programming.

Recommendations

  • Policymakers who value OST should monitor federal funding trends and continue to create and fund state programs to offset any loss of federal funding.
  • Stakeholders should create new opportunities in the places that have the most need, as identified in the map. In so doing, funders might fund new programs or new slots offered by existing programs. To make these and other funding decisions, it will be important to understand the context and history of the neighborhoods. In addition to identifying locations of need, funders and providers might want to consider whether adding programming for the summer, for refugee and immigrant youth, or for middle and high school students would be warranted in those locations.
  • Philanthropic funding can also improve the quality of OST programs (e.g., by funding staff development or continuous quality improvement approaches) and sustain those that are found to benefit children and youth.

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Augustine, Catherine H., Maggie Hieber, Ellen Gracia, Devin Tierney, Logan Dick, Logan Elizabeth Robinson, and Mekdes Shiferaw, Improving Access to Out-of-School Time Opportunities in Allegheny County. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4526-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the McElhattan Foundation and conducted in the Education and Employment Program of RAND Education, Employment, and Infrastructure.

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