Workgroup on the Future of the Care of School-Age Children in Virginia (Summer 2025)

The Virginia Department of Education will be convening a workgroup in summer 2025 to discuss the future of the care of school age children in Virginia under two legislative directives: Senate Bill 1084 and the 2026 Virginia Budget (House Bill 1600, Item 125.10). The workgroup will ultimately develop recommendations pertaining to two priorities:

1.  Ensuring the health and safety of children in school-age care or out-of-school time (OST) programs. Specifically, how to:

a.  Reduce regulations while ensuring that all school-age children enrolled in out-of-school time programs are kept healthy and safe;
b.  Ensure fairness as it relates to licensure and exemptions for OST; and
c.  Ensure continuity for school-age children enrolled in OST programs.

 2.  Addressing unmet parent demand for OST services while maximizing all available funding sources. Specifically, how to:

a.  Maximize public dollars while ensuring parent choice;
b. Quantify impact and return on investment;
c.  Strengthen quality;
d. Identify out-of-school time deserts; and
e.  Develop innovative approaches to reduce deserts, better support working parents, and ensure sustainability.

The work group shall report its findings and recommendations related to access and funding to the Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education in Summer and Fall 2025. Ultimately, findings and recommendations will be reported to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by December 1, 2025.

As directed by legislation, the work group shall include representatives of school divisions, 21st Century Community Learning Center grantees, private child care providers, the Virginia Partnership for Out-of-School Time, local parks and recreation entities, the YMCA, Communities in Schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, and other organizations that provide out-of-school time programming.

All meetings will be open to the public for observation; direct participation in meeting activities is limited to workgroup members. Meetings will be held in Richmond at the James Monroe Building (Floor 1 Conference Rooms D/E) on the dates below. Agendas will be posted shortly before each meeting.

• Tuesday, June 24, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. (AGENDA | PRESENTATION SLIDES)
• Thursday, July 24, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. (AGENDA | READING MATERIALS | PRESENTATION SLIDES)
• Tuesday, September 9, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. (AGENDA | PRESENTATION SLIDES | READING MATERIALS | DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS)

In these meetings, the workgroup will:

• Review the landscape of school-age/out-of-school-time care,
• Identify key barriers and potential solutions, and
• Develop recommendations related to 1) ensuring the health and safety of children in school-age care or out-of-school time programs and 2) addressing unmet parent demand while maximizing available funding sources for school-age care.

Any questions pertaining to the workgroup can be directed to Chelsea Kaihoi at chelsea.kaihoi@doe.virginia.gov.