Out-of-School Time Expansion Study Report Provides Road Map for Phased Afterschool Expansion in Cambridge


6/11/2025 • 4 weeks ago

Children take a drumming lesson during a Community Schools program

The City of Cambridge, in partnership with Cambridge Public Schools (CPS), has released the Cambridge Out-of-School Time (OST) Expansion Study Report. OST programs offer constructive and enriching activities that support children’s development outside of school hours, including after school, during vacations, and during summer breaks. The purpose of the study, led by the Cambridge Agenda for Children Out-of-School Time and supported by the consultants WithInsight and Resonance Data Collective, is to better understand the unmet need in Cambridge by fully examining the demand for afterschool seats and the current capacity to meet that demand.

The Cambridge OST ecosystem consists of more than 70 programs, 28 of which offer 5-day a week afterschool care to students in Kindergarten – 8th grade. As a mixed-delivery system, OST providers across Cambridge include community-based nonprofit organizations, City-run programs offered by the Department of Human Service Programs (DHSP), and extended-day and summer programs administered by the Cambridge Public Schools (CPS). As the report details, the pandemic and its aftermath reshaped the OST landscape in Cambridge, bringing positive strides toward equity and new barriers in service delivery.

Key Recommendations Include:

  1. Build systems partnerships to better coordinate across CPS and OST systems to center the wellbeing of children, youth, and families. 
  2. Ensure equity in enrollment, guided by the principle of targeted universalism (aiming to benefit all while prioritizing the needs of marginalized groups).
  3. Improve space sharing between CPS schools and OST programs.
  4. Support students with special needs.
  5. Build and maintain a strong OST workforce.

The report culminates a year-long, in-depth community engagement process guided by the Expansion Study Steering Committee and the Advisory Group, comprised of more than 35 school principals, school family liaisons, district staff, and OST staff and leaders in Cambridge. The process included ten focus groups with Cambridge caregivers, including many caregivers with children of special needs, caregivers whose primary language is not English, and caregivers from low-income households. The project team also collected data from hundreds of caregivers and OST practitioners through surveys and polls.  

The report details that the growth of the OST system will need to occur over a multi-year period, with leaders focused on increasing and sharing space as well as stabilizing staffing and funding to establish a strong foundation for continued expansion. The study is a significant milestone in creating a system where all Cambridge children and families have access to high-quality afterschool programs. The next phase will focus on addressing existing challenges in the provision of afterschool services in order to prepare for system expansion.  

Read the Cambridge OST Expansion Study Summary (PDF)

Read the Cambridge OST Expansion Study (PDF)

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For more information about the process, visit the Agenda for Children OST’s website.