The Extended Learning Program is in high demand, and is necessary to many students and their families within our district. We are doing everything that we can to enroll as many students as possible, while maintaining the safety and quality of the care that we provide. Below we go over the factors that cause to program to fill, what we're doing behind the scenes, and what you can expect if you're on our waitlist.

The Extended Learning Program must uphold a 13:1 student to staff ratio. If your Extended Learning site is full, it means that we have met this cap on each day of the week based on our current staffing.

Hiring remains one of our biggest challenges. To combat this we are posting on jobs sites, attending job fairs, hanging flyers, reaching out to local colleges and education programs, and posting on virtual job boards.

Available space is also a factor that we consider when closing our program. Over the summer we looked at ways to restructure how our programs are divided, and at how we use our spaces to ensure that we're getting the most out of them! Additionally, we are working with school staff to secure additional spaces. This way, as we hire more staff, space limitations are less impactful.

There are a lot of factors that impact movement on the waitlist. While staffing is a major driver, so are student schedules. Changes that currently enrolled families make greatly impact the speed that the waitlist moves, which is why we can't always give a concrete timeline to waitlist families. We tend to see movement around mid-summer and at the very start of the school year.

We move through our waitlist in chronological order, and we will reach out even if all of your requested days are not available. If you opt to take the available days we will keep your student on our waitlist and let you know when your additional days become available.

Thank you for your patience as we work hard to get students and families into The Extended Learning Program. If you have any questions please reach out to Bridget Hannigan, bhannigan@nrsd.net.