DHSP Afterschool Programs Lottery

Yes, please use the same application to apply for each child in your household. You can apply for up to 5 children who live in the same household through one application.

View the DHSP Afterschool Program Comparison Chart to compare our four afterschool program models.

Yes. DHSP afterschool programs operate during early release days. They also operate during February and April vacation weeks (excluding holidays).

Only children enrolled in an afterschool program are eligible to sign up for vacations weeks at their program site. More information will be communicated to enrolled families by program directors.

Children can apply to afterschool programs at different locations than the school they attend except for the following three programs:

• Children who apply to the King Open Extended Day afterschool program must be enrolled at the King Open School.
• Children who apply to the Fletcher-Maynard Academy Community School must be enrolled at Fletcher-Maynard Academy.
• Children who apply to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community School must be enrolled at the Martin Luther King, Jr. School. 

Your child must arrive at their afterschool program at the program's start time or after.

Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) provides transportation between schools and some sites. If your child chooses to attend an afterschool site and CPS does not provide transportation between your child’s school and the afterschool site, you will be responsible for transporting your child to the afterschool program.

Yes. Children who are currently enrolled in a DHSP afterschool program can re-enroll in the same program for the upcoming school year if they are still age-eligible.

Families who are re-enrolling must complete and submit an application by the Afterschool Lottery application deadline.

Steps for re-enrolling on the DHSP Afterschool Lottery application: 

1. On your child's application, answer "Yes" when asked if your child is currently enrolled in a DHSP afterschool program. 
   
   
2. In the dropdown menu that asks which program your child is enrolled in, select your child's program. 
    
3. Select "Yes" when asked if you are choosing to re-enroll your child in the same program and location.
   
   
4. In the "First Choice" dropdown, select the program location that your child is currently enrolled in. This will guarantee them a spot in the same program / location for the next school year. 
   
   
5. Complete and submit your application.  

If you are interested in applying to a different DHSP afterschool program or location for the upcoming school year, you can select different programs for your First, Second and Third choices. Your child will not be guaranteed a seat at these programs or at their current afterschool placement. They will be entered into the lottery for the choices you selected.

Families who apply and are accepted to DHSP's Childcare Afterschool programs must enroll their child for five days per week.

Families who apply to Community Schools, King Open Extended Day, or Cambridge Youth Programs' afterschool programs have the option of selecting 2, 3, or 5 days per week on their application.

Please note: families cannot customize the days of the week if they select 2 or 3 days on their application.

• Children who enroll in a program for 2 days per week must commit to Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Children who enroll in a program for 3 days per week must commit to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. 

To learn more about DHSP afterschool programs, view our comparison chart. 

Yes. Siblings are grouped together and share the same lottery number. When one child’s lottery number is selected and they are placed at an afterschool site, their sibling(s) get preference to be placed at the same site (provided that the family indicated the same sites for all children).

Sibling placement depends on seat availability at each site for each child's age group and is not guaranteed.

Families pay tuition for an entire year of programming, broken into monthly payments.

Monthly tuition rates are based on household size, family income and the number of days your child(ren) will attend programming. View tuition charts.

Yes. If a family has more than one child in grades K-5 enrolled in a DHSP afterschool program, we offer a sibling discount. Through the sibling discount, the household’s highest tuition fee is be paid in full each month. Additional tuition fees of equal or lesser value are 50% off.

This discount does not apply to youth enrolled in CYP’s Pre-Teen / Middle School programs, as tuition is free for 6 –8th graders.

Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) provides transportation between schools and some DHSP afterschool program sites. Bus transportation is drop-off only. Caregivers are responsible for picking their children up at the end of their program.

Whether CPS provides transportation to a DHSP afterschool program depends on the end time of your child’s school and the start time of the DHSP afterschool program.

If your child chooses to attend an afterschool site and CPS does not provide transportation between your child’s school and the afterschool site, you will be responsible for transporting your child to the afterschool program.

No. Children must be entering Kindergarten in September to be eligible to apply.

Afterschool programs that are run by the Department of Human Service Programs operate consistent with the state’s Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) licensure standards. Prior to the launch of the Cambridge Preschool Program (CPP), Cambridge children who were 4.5 years of age and older were eligible to enroll in Junior Kindergarten and were considered school-aged by the state’s Department of Early Education and Care. With the implementation of CPP in the 2024-2025 school year, which replacds Junior Kindergarten, children who are 4.5 years old are no longer considered school-aged.

All applications that are received by the application deadline are assigned a random lottery number.  Siblings are grouped together and share the same lottery number. The applications are then divided into 2 groups, Priority Applicants (from households with an income of 65% or less of HUD AMI) and General Applicants. 30% of seats in each afterschool program are designated for priority applicants.

Children who are currently enrolled in a DHSP afterschool program can re-enroll at the same site by completing the application. Children who are re-enrolling will be guaranteed a seat at that site if they do not have any past due tuition balances. If children are currently enrolled in a DHSP afterschool program and would like to enroll at a different site, they will not get a seat preference and will be re-entered into the lottery.

There are six community afterschool programs in Cambridge that offer afterschool programming five days a week. Please visit their websites for program and registration information: 

• Agassiz Baldwin Community
• Cambridge Community Center
• Community Art Center
• Dragon Fly Afterschool
• East End House
• Cambridge YMCA.

You can also find afterschool options and many other resources for families at www.finditcambridge.org.