Our History​

Founded as The After-School Corporation (TASC) in 1998 through a challenge grant from the Open Society Foundations (then the Open Society Institute), we were the first organization that set out to build a citywide system of daily comprehensive afterschool programs for kids in kindergarten through high school. We created a model for daily afterschool programs that community-based organizations, such as settlement houses, and cultural organizations, operate in New York City public schools every day that school is in session. We demonstrated that quality afterschool programs that keep kids engaged in robust activities while parents work could be scaled to reach large numbers of students.

We also influenced policy change by showing how private investment could leverage more efficient and effective use of public investments in both education and youth development. In our first decade, we leveraged more than four dollars in private and public spending for every dollar the Open Society Foundations invested in our founding grant. We laid the foundation for New York City to build the nation’s largest publicly funded afterschool system through its Out-of-School Time initiative; New York State’s Advantage AfterSchool was based on our model; and we helped develop program standards for the U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

Over the decades of our work, we have found that in the most effective afterschool programs, the host school and its community partner operate as one team with a common vision and set of goals for student progress. Together the principal, teachers, parents and community educators plan afterschool activities that reinforce and expand on what kids learned during the school day. They share responsibility and accountability for supporting and educating the whole child. We built ExpandED Schools on this foundation of shared school-community planning, responsibility and accountability for ensuring every young person can thrive.