Oswego School District in Collaboration with OCO Awarded NYS Office of Children and Family Services Empire State After-School Program Grant

OSWEGO – Oswego City School District is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $2,832,000 five-year ($566,400 annually) Empire State After-School Program grant from the NYS Office of Children and Family Services to provide high quality, free after-school and summer programming to 400 students in grades 3-6.

Oswego City Schools will partner with Oswego County Opportunities to create the program named SAFE Harbor (Student Achievement For Everyone) which will promote the safety, learning and well-being of the 400 targeted students (220 students after-school programming and 180 students summer programming).

Based on a rigorous analysis of child/family needs, services will be situated at the Leighton and Fitzhugh Park schools.

SAFE Harbor will:
1. Provide opportunities for academic enrichment, including tutorial services to help low income and students with special needs meet/exceed state standards/local learning benchmarks;
2. Offer students a broad array of services, programs and activities such as youth development/leadership activities, service learning, nutrition and health education, drug and violence prevention programs, arts, music, physical fitness and wellness programs, technology education, literacy and mathematics programs; and
3. Offer families opportunities for meaningful engagement in their children’s education, including opportunities for literacy and related educational development via evidence-based family-focused programming.

Once a SAFE Harbor Program Coordinator is appointed, student recruiting and enrollment will begin.

Updated SAFE Harbor program information will be posted on the district’s website, www.oswego.org/.

Oswego CSD was eligible to apply for the grant funds, which were available for high-need school districts to establish after-school programs.

Eligible school districts were directed to partner with a non-profit agency and required to have a 2015 child district poverty rate of over 30 percent (Census data).

First announced in January as part of the Governor’s 2017 State of the State, funding was enacted in the 2017-2018 Budget allowing districts to receive five-year grants of $1,600 per student.

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