Photo by Andrew Augustus
By Sam Wroblewski, reporting by Andrew Augustus WPRO News
Congressman David Cicilline unveiled new legislation Monday to help improve afterschool programs throughout the country.
Cicilline joined students and teachers at Nathan Bishop Middle School and spoke about how bolstered afterschool programs can positively affect young people.
“It leads to healthier development of kids both in terms of their academic learning and their exploration of new things, of music, of arts, or athletics. But it also keeps them away from negative influences in their lives,” said Cicilline.
The legislation would incentivize or require communities to partner with schools to better engage youths in the school system.
“We all recognize that there are still too many children, about 15 million children, who are home alone between the hours of 3:00pm and 6:00pm. And if we could just figure out how to create healthy learning opportunities for kids in those hours then it ca support and supplement their academic learning during the school day.”
The legislation mirrors the afterschool program the Providence school system introduced while Cicilline was still Mayor.
