Planet Youth Homer: Quality after-school programming protects kids

Published 9:30 pm Wednesday, January 28, 2026

“It’s 10 p.m., do you know where your children are?” From 1960 through the late 1990s this public service announcement was broadcast on the late-night news and on radio stations across the country. Massachusetts Senator William X. Wall proposed nightly curfews for kids in 1961 and encouraged that this message be promoted to remind parents to check up on their children. This PSA is usually associated with teens and their penchant for late-night shenanigans, however, if the time of day becomes irrelevant, it becomes a question that applies its constant pressure to the daily minds of most parents: “What’s the schedule for my kids today?”

Who’s picking up? Who’s dropping off? What’s the rehearsal/practice/playdate plan for today? Is it a snow day/early release/parent teacher conference/Inservice, etc.? Any parent will tell you they have the toughest job in the universe, and I’m just talking about the logistics part. In addition to this typically thankless job, many of them have one or more additional jobs they work to keep food on the table and the heat on.

To complicate things further, there is some serious competition for out-of-school activities. According to the Alaska After 3pm research released in October 2025, the parents of over 82,000 children wanted after-school programming for their kids. However, only 17,516 were enrolled. Four out of 5 kids were missing out.

Quality after-school programming keeps kids safe. It helps build social skills and improves responsible decision-making. It also boosts teamwork, critical thinking, leadership skills and gets young people excited about learning, which improves school outcomes.

So, what about those other 65,000 Alaskan kids? What are they doing if they aren’t in after-school programs? It’s estimated that 20% of the kids in Alaska are considered “latchkey kids.” This term refers to any kid who is left unsupervised after school. These kids go home alone, and in many cases look after their younger siblings.

Being a latchkey kid can have both positive and negative impacts on a child’s life. Independence is a defining characteristic of an Alaskan, and to see kids develop a sense of self-reliance gives us hope for their future. Youth learn time management, how to cook, and determination with schoolwork and other tasks. It’s like being an adult-in-training, without bills and taxes.

As a latchkey kid myself, my siblings and I would get dropped a short ¾ mile walk to my doorstep. We walked uphill both ways, as the saying goes. We would get home and make ourselves something to eat and try not to burn the house down. We would do our best to understand the homework and entertain ourselves until mom was home. I was fortunate to have siblings, so for me it normally wasn’t lonely or scary, but at times there were threats like moose, aggressive neighborhood dogs, or the creepy van that would roll by. Some days I look back at my youth and think, “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” but the logical part of my brain also thinks, “We were frequently at risk.” According to “Left unsupervised: A look at the most vulnerable children,” an article published in April 2003 by Sharon Vandivere, Kathryn Tout, Jeffrey Capizzano and Martha Zaslow, “[C]hildren in ‘self care’ may be at increased risk for accidents and injuries, for social and behavior problems, and for academic achievement and school adjustment problems.”

Economic factors play a huge role in a family’s access to after-school care. Low-income families are much less likely to enroll in programming due to cost. Here’s the twist though — after-school programming can contribute to a boost in income. Parents who enroll their kids in after-school programming can work longer hours without the stress of having those kids home alone. Over 90% of the parents surveyed by Alaska After 3pm said this reduction in stress improved productivity at work. The icing on the cake is that the positive impact of lower stress improves well-being for parents and their kids!

The Resilience Coalition’s workgroup for out-of-school time programming introduced Planet Youth, a community-led, data-driven, model to boost enrichment for youth that is based on the Icelandic model which has drastically reduced the rates of substance abuse and other risk factors for youth in Iceland and abroad. They also initiated a community-led advisory panel to guide the formation of a coordinated after-school network that will be starting this fall. Our hope is that because of these efforts, when someone says, “It’s 3 p.m., do you know what your kids are up to?” — you can rest assured that your community has got you covered.

Rudy Multz works as the Child and Family Program Manager for South Peninsula Behavioral Health in Homer, where he was born and raised and is raising his own daughter. He is a member of Planet Youth Homer and is an advocate for the enrichment of youth experiences. For self-care he enjoys pursuing his creative passion for games, music and theater and gets his endorphins by playing broomball.