AfterSchool21 (AS21) helps out-of-school-time (OST) programs collect their data and generate calculations needed to comply with new government reporting mandates that started July 1, 2021. Also in the release is new financial reporting capabilities for programs that charge fees.
Each 21st Century Community Learning Center (21CCLC)-funded after-school and OST program must submit an annual performance report to show progress on key data points for students enrolled in their program under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).
The AS21 Summer 2021 software release provides several key innovations to support the transition to GPRA reporting requirements.
Reporting for GPRA Made Easier
21CCLC programs must now count the number of hours they provide enrichment. AS21 subscribers can now calculate the average hours of participant's daily attendance. For 21APR reporting, you will have to take the number of hours of instruction and provide an average for different grades levels. Without AS21 to do this automatically, these calculations will take a lot of time and effort from program staff.
AS21 subscribers can search and filter attendance data based on a minimum of one-hour participation instead of days, meeting the new GPRA requirement.
Other Annual Performance Reporting-related changes in this release include:
- For non-time-based programs, each program's start and end time determines the length of time the child is attending. This report matches the GPRA requirement. Administrators can filter and save their preferred settings, so future reports take less time.
- AS21 users can override default settings to put in their own average hours of a session or day. Staff can achieve more granular reports this way without spending precious time to manually set up separate sessions in shorter time blocks to record the average number of hours of student participation per day. This is especially helpful for centers with different programs running during the day, with varied start and end times from the overall session, the report defaults to the length of the session.
- Updated reporting periods for programs in Kentucky, Wisconsin, Montana, and Indiana. These states can now survey students who had summer participation and run reports on both summer and regular school year data to align with GPRA requirements.
Improved Data Integration
A partnership between TransACT, AS21, and the Global Grid for Learning (GG4L), improves importing student demographic information from a state or district's Student Information System (SIS).
The increased SIS compatibility provides easier and faster integration, alleviating the burden on IT departments and giving AS21 users improved data and reporting.
Payment and Revenue Reports
Not related to GPRA reporting, but three new reports are available to give maximum clarity to out-of-school time programs that use AS21 and charge programming fees. Programs can ensure that credit card transactions through the AS21 parent portal are accurate and run reports that break down fee types. The three new reports available are:
- Charges By Charge Rule – a summary report that shows the overall revenue in a particular date range for several sites
- Charges By Charge Rule Detail – see the total revenue for a specific program
- Revenue By Type of Fee Charged – keep track of various weekly charges and the type of fee
You can run reports for monthly transactions from any program to check for outstanding balances at the end of the month. You can create and filter many other reports further by:
- Date
- Amount due
- Show charges within a date range
- Payment method
Administrators can drill down into specific credit card transactions and verify that there is a record of those transactions. The result is proper records and no awkward conversations with parents about owing money when, in fact, they are up to date with their payments.
Upgraded Support Portal
A support dashboard serves as an intuitive point for creating support tickets, watching training videos and the training workbook, saving clicks, and improving user support.
AS21 is the most customizable and advanced after-school program data management software available. As of publication, twelve State Departments of Education and hundreds of grant-funded or parent-pay programs across the United States have trusted AS21 for 25 + years to simplify reporting on after-school outcomes for grant-funded and parent-pay programs alike.
Contact a team member to learn more about these feature improvements and how AS21 can help after-school program centers reach program goals while making GPRA reporting requirements less difficult.
