Senator Murphy From Connecticut Introduces Legislation to Fund Summer Experiences for More Children
New legislation, the Summer for All Act, aims to bridge the summer learning equity gap. A nationally representative poll by Gallup published Friday, in partnership with the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) and the American Camp Association (ACA), found that 30 million youth are engaged in summer opportunities. This represents 55 percent of K-12 youth in schools.
Slightly more than half of U.S. parents, 55%, report their school-aged children participated in at least one structured program last summer that provided opportunities to learn or refine academic, athletic, creative, social or other skills. Forty-five percent of parents say their children did not participate in any such program. Local day camps and weekly enrichment courses are the most common structured summer programs for U.S. children, followed by summer school and overnight camps. Lower-income children are much less likely than middle- and upper-income children to participate in most types of summer programs.