Kid Zone also involves students in the program’s planning process.

To help students who are struggling in school, after-school programs are also designed to keep children caught up with daily work. Some schools even provide specialized after-school programs such as math or reading nights.

Anderson University sponsors a program, run by college students, called College Mentors for Kids. According to Michael Watts, president of the organization, its goal is to connect elementary school children with a “college mentor” so they can see what college life is like.

“The children we work with are first- through fourth-graders,” Watts said. “Every Tuesday students from Anderson Elementary come, and on Wednesdays students from Robinson Elementary come.”

The goal is to encourage young students to work hard in school and make their own goals for college.

Helping families help themselves

These kinds of programs help not only the students but also their families. As Anderson Community Schools Superintendent Mikella Lowe points out, many families, struggling or not, don’t always know how to help their kids with schoolwork.

“It’s not that the parents don’t want to help,” she said. “But in hard times, some parents don’t have a lot of time since they may be working two or three (part-time) jobs.”

According to Womack, simple tasks like counting the plates on the table, naming the colors of food being eaten or spelling out the names of the foods at the grocery store are easy ways to keep children learning.

Title I offers more assistance to ACS kids. The program works to improve the academic achievement of disadvantaged students.

Nancy Farley, director of Title I and transportation, said that the goal of Title I is “for all children, regardless of poverty or ethnicity, to achieve at or above their grade level.”