Dive Brief:
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A majority of school districts (81%) offered summer programs in 2023, but the largest programs — which were typically four weeks and free of charge — enrolled less than half of eligible students, according to a RAND Corp. report released Tuesday.
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Low rates of enrollment held true regardless of whether those programs had eligibility requirements such as limiting the program to students performing below grade level or those without enough course credits to graduate on time.
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Two in 5 districts also anticipate funding decreases for summer 2024. However, the RAND report says districts may find their budgets thin in summer 2025, or the first summer without federal pandemic aid.
Dive Insight:
Summer programming became the second most common strategy employed by districts for academic recovery in the wake of the pandemic, according to a previous RAND report released in fall 2023.
As such, the strategy remained robust in 2023, the fourth summer after the pandemic began. Some 78% of school districts provided academic summer programming in 2023, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That equated to about 15% of all public school students participating nationwide.
According to the RAND report released Tuesday, summer 2023 programs were usually offered to both elementary and secondary grades and included about four hours of academics per day.
However, less than 1 in 5 of the largest elementary summer programs met the minimum recommended hours of academic instruction — three or more hours per day in a five- to six-week summer program.
To improve summer programming and make a dent in pandemic learning loss, the RAND report recommended that districts:
- Enroll more students, potentially by communicating to parents that their child needs help.
- Extend the daily programming from four hours to full day and the program length to five or six weeks.
- Start planning summer programs earlier in the year to allow for higher quality services, like providing teachers with academic lesson plans.
With a majority of public schools offering the programs for free, cost did not pose a widespread obstacle to participation in years prior. That may soon change for some districts, per the RAND report.
For this summer, while over half (53%) expect summer program funding to remain about level with summer 2023, 2 in 5 districts still anticipate funding decreases.In fact, 39% of districts, or a "sizable minority," of districts expect their program dollars to decrease for summer 2024.
As a result, despite summer programming being one of districts' main pandemic recovery strategies, some education leaders anticipate scaling back on services as the end of COVID-19 funding nears.
"Looking ahead to summer 2024, it seems like summer programming is poised to shrink rather than grow," the Tuesday report said.
Indeed, a 2022 survey conducted by the School Superintendents Association found that 57% of districts planned to decrease or end summer programs by September 2024 as federal pandemic aid ends.
But RAND researchers suggest many districts might instead find their dollars scarce in summer 2025, or the first summer after federal relief funds expire.
As districts scale back on summer programs, it's possible they may have to serve fewer students, reduce hours served or start charging for the services in the coming years, RAND said.
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