After-school squeeze: Families search for backup as A+ fills up

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Across the state, the A+ After School program has long been a lifeline for thousands of working families. But this year, demand is outpacing capacity. With just three weeks before classes start, many sites are already full.

“The challenge for our A Plus program is workforce is being able to track enough after-school care workers to be able to add more spaces,” said Tammi Oyadomori-Chun, Deputy Superintendent of Schools.

The Department of Education partners with community organizations like the YMCA to run the A+ program statewide, which serves about 3,000 students, but they rely on staff to run it, and that’s where the bottleneck begins.

“We’ve offered a $500 bonus to all new hires once they become employees. Here we also have a $500 referral bonus for any employee that refers a friend or family. If any of our members or members of the community also refer us a wonderful candidate, we’re happy to onboard them, and they will also receive $250 of YMCA credit towards their membership or program of choice,” said Kevin Patterson, YMCA Hawaii Vice President of People and Culture.

The YMCA is working to hire more staff in the next couple of weeks.

“Hopefully very soon, if not next week or the week after, hopefully, that wait list starts to go down drastically,” said Patterson.

“We try to do what we can. But this is bad to where a lot of the schools are waitlisted. That’s, yeah, it’s a bit concerning,” said Kiki Roller, Moiliili Community Center Office Manager.

At the Moiliili Community Center, they say their team at the After School program is ready, but they are also nearly full.

“If we get enough inquiries to see if we are going to make more room, we’ll sit, we’ll discuss about it, and hopefully we can, I know that there’s a wait list everywhere else, but we really want to help our parent, our parents out,” said Roller.

Education officials recommend parents who are waitlisted to keep checking with the program to see if spots open up, and inquire with nearby community centers as after-school options.

There are also other programs, like the Ikaika Hawaii Waterman’s Academy, that teach water sports and life skills to children, aiming to perpetuate the Hawaiian Waterman culture and promote community leadership.

Kai Wilding is the program director of Ikaika Hawaiʻi Waterman’s Academy and says the non-profit has been running for nearly 15 years. Despite funding and staffing issues, the program continues to operate because Wilding says he knows the importance of keeping children learning and growing while parents have to work.

“So we will continue to support the community and give opportunity to keiki to be out there on the water to learn how to be leaders. So if they want to come to us, we’re open and ready to take keiki into our arms,” said Wilding.

The YMCA agrees that the A+ program is critical for the community.

“I would say, it’s one of the most, if not the most important, child care program on the island of Oʻahu, because for many families, they have to make the choice of, does one parent need to not work and stay home with the child, or is this income that makes the family work,” said Patterson.

As for long-term solutions, the DOE says they are working on increasing staff, but it comes with a compromise.

“However, being more attractive often means raising the wages, and raising the wages means raising the fees. So, this is a trade-off,” said Oyadomori-Chun.