February 25, 2026
Good Morning Chairman Mendelson, members, and staff of the Committee of the Whole. My name is Njeri Jenkins, and I am the OST Advocacy Manager at DC Action. I support the Out-of-School-Time (OST) Coalition, which represents over 100 community-based organizations delivering high-quality youth development and enrichment OST programming to thousands of young people across all eight wards of the District.
OST providers are essential partners to DC schools, agencies, and communities. To deliver high-quality programming at scale, providers need administrative systems that are simple, coordinated, and predictable. However, I too often hear from our OST provider partners that misaligned government processes create unnecessary administrative burdens that divert their time and resources from young people. This testimony focuses on one central theme: reducing administrative friction so providers can spend more time delivering programming and less time troubleshooting systems.
Uncoordinated data systems make basic grant compliance unnecessarily difficult.
Tracking and reporting student enrollment and daily attendance are core grant compliance requirements for OST programs. It is also an essential datapoint for the District’s benchmarking of progress toward universal access to OST for all public school students. Yet uncoordinated systems make it far more frustrating than it should be.
Students and families are most familiar with the student ID numbers issued by DC Public Schools. However, we have heard directly from OST programs that when those numbers are entered into the CitySpan grant portal, they often produce low match rates with DC’s official enrollment records of public and public charter school students. A separate, unique student identifier number issued by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education generates a higher match rate. Yet few families are familiar with this number, and, in our understanding from providers, OSSE prohibits providers from communicating directly with parents to request it. Even when families attempt to obtain the number themselves, the process is unclear and difficult to navigate.
These misaligned systems create avoidable reporting discrepancies that require extensive staff time from OST providers to resolve. Overly burdensome administration reinforces provider inequities: smaller organizations, without dedicated grants or compliance staff, struggle to correct data deficiencies and can appear less compliant on paper despite delivering strong programming.
When providers must dedicate excessive time to navigating IT hassles, duplicative reporting requirements, unclear guidance, or shifting attendance rules, staff time is diverted away from youth engagement, mentorship, and program quality improvement. Some providers reduce enrollment or program hours simply to keep up with compliance demands. That shrinks the OST ecosystem and reduces choices for families.
Over time, chronic administrative inefficiencies create programmatic instability. They make it harder to budget accurately, retain staff, maintain consistent schedules, and scale up what works. They also discourage experienced providers from applying for or continuing to participate in District-funded grants. The result is fewer hours spent delivering high-quality youth development programming and fewer affordable OST options for DC families.
Building use challenges shift administrative risk onto nonprofit providers.
OST programs rely on stable, predictable access to DCPS school buildings and DPR recreation centers. Across wards and program models, providers report frequent delays, billing disputes, and inconsistent guidance when navigating facility access.
While the OST Coalition is grateful for DCPS’s continued coverage of most costs associated with building usage – coverage that remains a financial necessity for OST program partners – systemic challenges with Building Use Agreements (BUAs) must be resolved. Our providers need the DME to provide stronger interagency coordination leadership to ensure that on-the-ground building access reflects approved BUA schedules for each school’s OST partners.
We regularly hear from OST Coalition partners that billing for custodial and security services is unclear, delayed, or inconsistent with BUA agreements, creating budgeting headaches for nonprofits operating on fixed public grants and limited private funds. When special or premium building use costs are not communicated upfront, providers must redirect funding away from direct services to cover unanticipated expenses. Without clear billing standards or dispute resolution processes, small organizations assume disproportionate financial risk and staff burden to resolve issues.
Delays and unclear building use processes force programs to postpone start dates, reduce services, cancel events, and spend precious staff time on red tape instead of youth engagement. These systemic challenges shift administrative burden from city agencies to individual providers, compounding the instability that many community-based organizations already face
Across data systems and building use agreements, a consistent pattern emerges: administrative inefficiencies shift responsibility onto nonprofit providers and reduce the time and resources they can dedicate to young people. Administrative systems should support programming, not compete with it. By reducing unnecessary burdens, the DME can help providers to do what they do best: mentor young people, build relationships, inspire skills and passions, and deliver enriching, high-quality OST experiences across all eight wards.
The OST Coalition urges the Administration and the Council to ensure grant funding continues to grow for high-quality, affordable OST programs operated by community-based providers and to couple funding stability with urgent reforms that streamline data matching, standardize and clarify building use processes, and reduce duplicative reporting requirements. Greater coordination across DCPS, OSSE, DPR, DGS, and the Deputy Mayor for Education would reduce burden, promote equity among providers, and ensure public investments in OST translate into the kind of high-quality, stable programming we know helps District youth to grow and thrive.
Additionally, we urge you, Chairman, to use today’s hearing with the Deputy Mayor to gather information about DCPS’s recent announcement (by way of DCPS’ FY27 budget development guide) of an intended $8.1 million investment in afterschool programming for elementary and middle school students. Will this funding augment funding available through the DME’s OST Office? Is this a part of My Afterschool DC grant competitions operated by the DME? Is this supplemental to the funding DCPS already utilizes through the federal 21st Century Learning Centers program? Something separate? Will DCPS use this money to operate their own OST curricula or will community-based OST operators be leveraged for the typically higher-quality program models and services they provide?      Â
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.Â