Before Care, Aftercare
&
Other After-School Opportunities
General Information
/Overview of Awesomeness
Aftercare and many other interest-based clubs & opportunities are available at Brightworks once the school day ends (3:30pm, except for Wednesdays at 2:30pm) until 6:00pm.
Aftercare
Aftercare is available to everyone in the school on an as-needed basis, billed separately from regular tuition (with both flexible/drop-in as well as prepaid payment options, with financial aid available to those who need it).
While Aftercare is generally intended for and used most by Brightworks’ younger children (ages 13 and under), we would also love to welcome and curate special after-school experiences for them if we get a head’s up and they’ll be participating ahead of time.
After-School Clubs and Other Opportunities
The creative community of kids and families around Brightworks is also always buzzing with new and awesome opportunities to play, create, paint, build and more together here at the school even after the school day lets out. In the past, some of these opportunities have ranged from Rob’s Carving Club, the FIRST Lego League Robotics team, watercolor painting hangouts, open shop time for kids to work on their own projects, book clubs, Tinkering School workshops, bug exploration time with a parent expert, Spanish language learning, kid-led Dungeons and Dragons adventures, informal “let’s meet up and walk down to the climbing gym together” clubs, as well as the Tinkering School MARS Robotics program.
More news and details about what the Brightworks community is cooking up to offer after-school this year will be coming in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned. (And if you have an idea for a club or something else you’d like to offer after-school at Brightworks, please get in touch. We’d love to talk about it!)
Registration and Cost Information
Registering for Aftercare:
If you think you might use Aftercare on any kind of regular basis, please register by signing the service agreement provided at this link, choosing one of the options above, and paying a one-time registration fee of $50. (There is no registration fee required for Before Care use.)
By registering for Aftercare in advance, you’re providing the team a huge help by affording them the ability to better anticipate the needs of the Brightworks community and plan the Aftercare program more effectively.
Costs for Before Care:
The normal arrival period for students at Brightworks is between 9:00 to when the school day officially starts, at 9:15am. For families who need to drop off their children earlier, Before Care is offered at the building beginning at 8am. There is a flat fee of $10 per day for use of the Before Care program, which is billed at the end of every month.
Costs for Aftercare:
Aftercare offers two different financial options:
a flexible, drop-in option, billed on an hourly rate based on usage — ideal for families who only use it irregularly,
as well as a simplified prepaid plan for families who use Aftercare more regularly, which offers a more discounted rate.
Flexible / Drop-In Option
For families who anticipate only using Aftercare sporadically or for a limited number of hours each month, or simply wish for more financial flexibility, Aftercare offers a Flex / Drop-In Option billed at a rate of $15 an hour based on usage.
For this option, we also generally ask that families try to communicate with Aftercare staff ahead of time (as much as reasonably feasible), so that we can better anticipate the day’s needs.
Prepaid Plan
For families who anticipate using Aftercare more regularly, we also have a Prepaid Plan offering 20 hours of use per month at a flat package cost of only $260 — with every additional hour beyond that charged at a guaranteed lower rate of $13 an hour (with these additional hours billed at the end of the month). Though unused hours in this plan aren’t able to be refunded or carried over to a new month, this plan does offer a fee ceiling ensuring that a family’s maximum bill on this prepaid plan will not exceed $500 a month, no matter the number of hours used.
In both plans, use of Aftercare will be charted in increments of 1 hour, 2 hours, 2.5 hours, or 3.5 hours on Weds, in order to streamline the logistics of billing. Financial aid is also available for those who need it. If this is something your family is interested in, please reach out to the Aftercare team and we will be happy to work with you.
Emergency Drop-In always available! (regardless of registration)
Finally, for all of those occasional moments or unexpected terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days when emergencies happen or you just can’t help but run a little late for pickup, we want everyone in the Brightworks community to know that we’ll always make Aftercare available to any child and family who needs it — regardless of the circumstances or whether that child has been formally registered for aftercare or not.
We’ll always do our best in aftercare to meet you and your family’s needs, whatever they may be, and in return, we simply ask that if it looks like your family may actually end up using aftercare for more than just the occasional once- or twice-a-year emergency situation, you please consider registering your child formally.
Thank you so much for your support!
