ABSTRACT
The challenges of poverty are always present for both families and students. Effective public schools serve as a welcome reprieve for families, a source of entertainment for the entire community, and more than anything the perpetual place to go to meet the vast needs of families in poverty. Families and especially single mothers in poverty often work service jobs with odd hours that create child-care issues. Many of our very youngest children are dropped off in America's roughest neighborhoods where they are loosely supervised outside of school hours for lengthy periods of time. The summer months result in the deterioration of literacy levels coupled with poor nutrition, further reducing knowledge retention and widening achievement gaps and societal differences. Public schools often make impressive gains with children in poverty during the school year, only to see a regression of academic skills during the unsupervised time of summer. This is due largely to a lack of enrichment activities among poor families who are not likely to travel for vacations, make educational visits to museums, or even read to their children.
