NAGS HEAD, N.C. — After-school care will have a new look in the 2026-2027 school year at the five Dare County Elementary Schools. A partnership with "Right at School" that will only expand childcare access for families in the Outer Banks.
“That was a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders as a mom, because I know that my child's gonna be taken care of," said Caitlin Spruill, assistant superintendent for Dare Co. Schools.
Spruill is not only the assistant superintendent at Dare County Schools, she is also the mother of a soon to be kindergartener this fall. Before this new partnership knowing that she needed to keep an eye on when the applications for the previous after school program would open.
"I was one of those parents that was like, 'okay, when are the applications coming out? When is this?' Because I wanted to make sure that we had that option, but now it's not a concern," said Spruill.
That's Spruill talking about DCS's current after school program that was successful but sometimes a challenge for families to get a spot in. It also faced another common challenge in childcare with staffing. Long-time director of the ASEP afterschool program L'Tanya Murray is retiring in August.
“She had some concerns about the sustainability of it, as far as staffing, and then how we can further enhance what we have," said Spruill, sharing some of the concerns that Murray had.
Murray and school district leaders went on a long search to figure out how they could make sure the program was set-up for success.
"L'Tanya was approached by someone about Right at School who was very interested in having a discussion. And so she had a discussion with them, and then she came to me and said, Katie, I think this is the way to go," said Spruill.
That’s where “Right At School” comes in, earlier this month the Dare County School Board unanimously approved a partnership with the organization for after school operations.
“The work that school leaders do from seven to three is heavy and daunting enough, and being able to continue that support beyond the bell is oftentimes a challenge. It really came from understanding that the district was investing so many resources in making sure that families had great coverage, but really unable to continue to grow to scale, because the demand is so significant," said Steffany Holloway, vice-president of Partnerships for "Right at School."
It’s a challenge that the Holloway says the organization is prepared to tackle.
With dedicated student enrichment programs, for the first time after-school programs will be offered on early release days here, summer programs are planned for 2027, but maybe the most important piece of this puzzle for our community is their staffing.
“Typically when we are able to transition our programming and we manage that after school component for districts, we are making sure that we are staffing beyond the current needs, so that as families are coming into the community, as families are learning more about this, we have the opportunity to scale that growth, and our goal is to not have any wait list in any of those buildings," said Holloway.
"I think that it's going to take some time for parents to understand that the wait list piece isn't as much of a concern now, because we are partnering with somebody who has more flexibility with staffing, and so that was a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders," said Spruill.
Another aspect that Dare County Schools wanted to make sure came with this partnership is that the current after school staff is taken care of.
"We've built a transition pathway for all employees to continue on in the work that they do of supporting kiddos every single day as Right at School employees, and it also opens up an opportunity for Dare County school employees who might want the opportunity to pick up additional hours," said Holloway.
And something parents will be happy about is that the pricing of the after-school care will remain the same.
"Being able to support that and bring some additional enhancements to programming, while maintaining affordability, was both important to our leadership team, as well as to superintendent and their team," said Holloway.
One change parents will also see is that "Right at School" used an online application, instead of the traditional paper application that families had to use for the former after school program. For any parent interested in signing up for the program, click here.
Click here to see how we use AI at WTKR News 3.
