Bringing a child into this world should be a cause for celebration, but as millions of new parents find out each year, it is not enough to simply buy the diapers, put together the crib, set up the nursery and start saving for college. That’s because across the board – in single-parent to dual-income households – the soaring costs of child care and later aftercare fees are often overlooked.
$1500-$6000: the annual cost for before-and-after-school care for students that parents shell out depending on location, activities provided, staff-student ratio and hours of operation offered by schools, churches, boys and girls clubs, YMCAs, in-home day-care operators and others. Sometimes called Extended Day programs, before and after school care fills the gaps between standard school classroom hours and most parents’ work schedules.
At SKOOKii, we believe if an innovation is not affordable, it’s not a solution. And if the solution is not an app, it’s not useful for today’s parents. As a parent myself, I spend many Lincoln dollar bills monthly on my son’s after-school activities. It is also very time consuming to pay for aftercare fees if you have to write and mail checks or go into the office and stand in line. So today, I really thought if one of my favorite presidents, Abraham Lincoln was alive, how would he pay school fees?
Lincoln was unique and wasn’t afraid to challenge status quo. He is the only U.S. president who obtained a patent and was a licensed bartender; created the first federal income tax in 1861 and listened to the 11-year-old girl to grow his beard to win the election.
Lincoln would be devastated to hear that there is a free Aftercare mobile app and schools, organizations, and programs are not using it to help their constituents.