National Institute on Out-of-School Time

Ongoing since 1978

Program Director: Ellen Gannett, Ed.M.

"A national force dedicated to improving the quality of life of school-age children, their parents, and their care givers." — Marian Wright Edelman

For more than 30 years, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), formerly known as the School-Age Child Care Project, at the Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College, has successfully brought national attention to the importance of children's out-of-school time. Through research, training, evaluation, and program development, NIOST has continued to be at the forefront of advances in the field, and has acted as a leader in many areas of out-of-school time policy development, increased quality standards, professional recognition, and community action.

NIOST's work bridges the fields of child care, education, and youth development in order to promote programming that addresses the development of the whole child. Responding to the needs of working families and communities, NIOST focuses much of its work on under-served populations, with a strong commitment to diversity and equity. A key feature to NIOST's work is its emphasis on using an interactive and collaborative approach to creating innovative and effective solutions to out-of-school time needs on a local, state, regional and national basis.

To disseminate the latest knowledge and build the leadership of the field, NIOST produces a wide array of research and technical papers, assessment and training tools, and publications. NIOST offers pertinent information and ideas on the listserv, SAC-L, and the NIOST web-site and contributes columns to national publications for practitioners and policy makers.

Please visit our homepage at:
www.niost.org