For parents who are working or in graduate school, the State College Area School District’s Community Education Extended Learning program can be a big help. CEEL, as it’s known, lets parents drop elementary school students off before the school day starts. Children can stay after school until 5:30 p.m.
“It is really like a place to help support families who need childcare, but also an enrichment type activity-building program that helps continue learning and grow our students, maybe further than students who wouldn't have this opportunity," said Danielle Yoder, assistant superintendent for elementary education.
The program, in its 11th year, is popular: About 450 children are in it — that’s about 17% of the district’s elementary students.
For much of that time, the school district has been in a legal battle with the state Department of Human Services. The district says CEEL is a continuation of the school day, not a separate day care.
"By having our own program, we can morph and bend and flex with our other programs. We can have knowledge of what's available in our facilities, and take advantage of that. So there's not duplication of efforts and so many coordination problems," said Randy Brown, the district's finance and operations officer. "We believe that school code allows us to do so, and we just unfortunately haven't been able to prove that yet."
The district lost in court recently. And while it plans to continue the popular program, it will have to make some administrative changes.
Shannon Messick, the district's Community Education coordinator, said the goal is for there to be little noticeable difference for families and students.
"There are just hoops to jump through from our end," she said. "There will be some paperwork that families have to fill out that we have to keep information that already exists in our student information system that doesn't satisfy the licensing requirements. Just paper forms. But other than things like that, we don't expect our families to notice a huge difference for the remainder of the school year."
The district is also beginning the state day care certification process. And they’re evaluating their options for the next school year, including hiring an outside provider.
In the meantime, Yoder said they will be open for the rest of the school year.
“We are working diligently behind the scenes to make sure we can do everything we can do, and consider all options so that we continue to have effective programming in the future," she said.
The district is appealing the decision in court.
