This blog was authored by Nathan Beck, Madison-area Out-of-School Time Coordinator, City of Madison, Wis.
In early July 2026, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway of Madison, Wis., walked into the Theresa Terrace Community Center, and it felt like walking into the home kitchen of a large and busy family. In this case, a very large one; 22 kids, a few teachers and staff, a large crew of visitors being welcomed in with the smell of a home-cooked meal, and the kids — mostly unbothered by the visitors — focused on their work.
Theresa Terrace is a small community center that the city helped start over a decade ago. Now it’s a bustling community hub run by the nonprofit Wisconsin Youth Company, surrounded by affordable homes on the southwest side of Madison. They offer all the support you would hope a community center offers: food pantry, youth programs and family-focused events, but on this day the Mayor was walking into something you might not expect in a community center: summer school.
Like in many cities, access to high-quality child care and afterschool and summer programs is a problem in Madison, but it’s one the city is taking seriously. Since Summer 2022, Madison has partnered with Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and dozens of youth-serving organizations to share and map data about outcomes and access to programs.
This data has led to robust evidence that Out-of-School Time programs improve academic outcomes (PDF).
For example, Latino high school students engaged in out-of-school time programs attend school five percent more, Black students engaged in programs have a GPA 10 percent higher than those who didn’t participate and, as a whole, middle school students engaged in afterschool programs have a nine percent higher GPA than those who are not. Additionally, the city released a public-facing Out-of-School Time Dashboard, a first of its kind real-time look into who is accessing Out-of-School Time Programs by neighborhood, and more importantly, who isn’t.
The data showed promising results from public investments. 70 percent of students, for example, enrolled in city-funded programs were low-income, but it also showed significant inequitable access based on geography and income, and it showed that city funding alone didn’t stretch far enough and more needed to be done. Madison took this data and, in partnership with MMSD, created one of the most innovative approaches to expanding access to summer programs in the country.
At Theresa Terrace, and three other community sites this summer, students are enrolled in MMSD Summer Semester programs run by community centers.
“Our Summer Semester community sites demonstrate what’s possible when schools, families, community organizations, and local government work together around a shared commitment to children. By bringing learning directly into neighborhoods, we’re able to remove barriers to participation while creating spaces where students grow academically, build confidence and experience the joy of learning alongside their peers.”
– Nicole Schaefer, MMSD’s Director of Strategic Programs
To launch these programs, the city subsidizes first-year start-up costs, the community center privately funds the basic costs and implements the program and MMSD reimburses the nonprofit per student served. The additional reimbursement raises the quality of programming and allows for more students to be enrolled. By ensuring programming meets the standards to count as summer school, MMSD’s school enrollment increases and thus their state funding. After the first summer, programs are sustainable without city funds, and Madison is able to use those funds to scale to new sites next summer. The end result is more kids in better programs.
So far the path Madison has followed is: use data to understand what’s going, think creatively with partners including schools, private philanthropy and community organizations, braid funds and resources and then pilot, learn and scale. But what’s next for Madison?
Core to Madison’s vision is expanded access to opportunities like Summer Semester and the necessity of partnerships to create positive outcomes for youth and families, and Madison is committed to more of this model. This fall, Theresa Terrace is one of several sites piloting a new 4k wrap-around approach that takes MMSD’s half day 4k program and extends it to a full day at no cost to families. The city, again, is taking a core role in getting this off the ground. By using different streams of child care funding at the city, they are subsidizing the cost of launching the program and guaranteeing spots for low-income children.
Additionally, the city is working in partnership with the district to coordinate sharing resources and space, supporting nonprofits to tap into new state funds for child care, and extending the impact even further with private funds. These new ways of partnering to blend school district, state, private and city funding are already reaping tangible benefits for hundreds of families, and Madison is not planning on stopping anytime soon.
“Providing our young people with opportunities to thrive is good for our entire community. I’m very proud of the partnerships between the City of Madison and MMSD. Together, we are advancing smart programs that make Madison a great city to raise a family.”
Advocate for Afterschool in Your Community
Learn how to advocate for afterschool programs in your community with this toolkit, which helps you identify and act on key messages.
