Earlier this year, Priscilla Allen eyed the lottery-based Amigos School’s afterschool program for her two children. Only one got a spot.

Allen’s children, now in kindergarten and fourth grade, both attend the Amigos School. Though the lottery allows parents to rank up to three programs, Allen said the Amigos School’s afterschool program was the only one that both children could reliably attend five days per week.

But after her fourth grader was waitlisted, Allen was faced with sending her children to separate programs and arranging two pickups each afternoon. She ultimately withdrew her younger child from the Amigos program, and enrolled both children in the Cambridge YMCA’s afterschool program, which is not operated by the city.

She said that the YMCA’s program is “better than not having any placement at all, or than being at two different locations.”

Hundreds of families rely on the 18 afterschool programs operated by the city’s Department of Human Service Programs. The programs serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade, with scaled monthly tuition based on a family’s size and income.

Still, more than 200 students remain on the waitlist as the school year begins. And parents who spoke to The Crimson said the lack of certainty and communication in the lottery process has pushed them to find more expensive or less convenient care before learning whether a city placement will become available — even if their children are ultimately selected from the waitlist.

The Afterschool Lottery

DHSP has received 1,965 eligible applications for the 2026-27 afterschool lottery, according to department spokesperson Bridget Martin. Applications were open from April 13 to May 11, but can be submitted after the deadline on a rolling basis. Applications submitted after the deadline are automatically added to the waiting pool.

The department offered placements to 1,691 children this year, and as of Thursday, 157 applicants had withdrawn and another 150 had declined their spots. More than 1,500 children are now enrolled in programs across the city, and another 267 remain in the waiting pool — a slight jump from last August, when the department reported 193 applicants who had not been placed into a program.

The lottery allows families to rank three of DHSP’s 18 programs, which are divided across four models: Childcare Afterschool, Community Schools, King Open Extended Day, and Cambridge Youth Programs. Each model runs from September to June, offering a range of programming for varying age groups.

Childcare Afterschool serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade and requires enrollment five days per week. Cambridge Youth Programs serve students in grades four through eight, with the programming being focused on leadership development, mentorship, STEAM education, and future planning.

King Open Extended Day also offers two-, three-, or five-day schedules but is available only to students who attend the King Open School. The Community Schools programs — which includes Amigos — also serve kindergarten through fifth graders, but students don’t have to attend their school’s program.

Thirty percent of seats in each program are reserved for children from households earning no more than 65 percent of the area’s median income.

The city says placements depend on several factors, including household income, preferred site, grade level, sibling preference and whether a family requested two, three or five days of programming. But because of the range of factors taken into account, the city does not provide parents with a standard numbered waitlist.

Allen said the lack of information made it difficult to determine whether her fourth grader had a realistic chance of receiving a placement.

“I think it would just be more helpful if there was more transparency on the lottery selection process and what factors go into that,” she said.

Martin said that DHSP has also struggled to support the maximum capacity across afterschool programs amid late-summer resignations and hiring shortages, which delayed the opening of four classrooms in the Community School program. One has since opened, and DHSP expects the other three to open during the week of Sept. 28.

DHSP has more than 30 vacant full- and part-time positions across its afterschool programs and Inclusion Initiative — which works to support students with disabilities in afterschool programming — according to Martin.

Martin said turnover is common in the out-of-school-time field because wages are lower and opportunities for advancement are more limited than in other fields. Job listings include positions paying $22 per hour as well as salaried positions, and Martin said the department is actively recruiting.

And as families decide where to send their children, Martin said the department was continuing to make offers from the waiting pool as seats open up — but parents say that the uncertainty, paired with the lack of clarity on where they fall in line, has made it challenging to make other childcare arrangements.

‘A Capacity Problem’

Sophia W. Bender Koning, whose children attend the Martin Luther King Jr. School, said her family has applied for a city after-school placement for her daughter every year since preschool without receiving one.

This year, Bender Koning’s first-grade son received two days per week in the MLK Community School program, while her third-grade daughter received none.

The family has relied on babysitters and outside programs — but Bender Koning said those arrangements are more expensive and require additional travel.

She and her husband have more flexibility than many parents because she works from home and he is a professor. But she said the lack of dependable after-school care interferes with their ability to work and has left her daughter feeling excluded from time with her classmates.

“My daughter said something this year that was like a gut punch,” Bender Koning said. “She was like, ‘Why does afterschool hate me?’ because all of her friends are in it.”

Bender Koning said the quality of Cambridge’s public after-school programs is not the problem. Parents whose children attend have described strong programming, activities and staff, she said. The problem, in her view, is that the city has not created enough seats to meet demand.

“It’s not a quality issue by any means,” Bender Koning said. “It’s just a capacity problem.”

Children already enrolled in a DHSP program are guaranteed a seat at the same site the following year if their families apply by the deadline and do not owe tuition. Siblings share a lottery number and receive preference for placement together, but the city does not guarantee that they will receive seats at the same site.

DHSP did not provide the number of sibling groups that could not be placed together. Martin said that figure, along with the number of children offered fewer days than their families requested, would be included in a data dashboard expected by the end of September.

Allen contacted the program director and an assistant city manager but said she could not find a way to secure a spot for her older child in the Amigos afterschool program. She waited until shortly before the school year began before deciding that keeping the children in different programs would not be manageable.

“If two kids are going to the same school already, I don’t understand what the logic is behind having them go to two different after-schools if that’s not what you requested,” Allen said.

For families unable to secure a spot in a DHSP program, the city also directs families toward six independent providers that offer five-day programming: Agassiz Baldwin Community, the Cambridge Community Center, the Community Art Center, Dragon Fly Afterschool, East End House, and the Cambridge YMCA — where Allen’s children now attend.

But outside options may cost more, lack space, or require children to travel to another location after school. Bender Koning said some families no longer view the lottery as a reliable source of childcare, even if they still submit applications.

“You can’t be like, ‘Oh, I’ll just see if the waitlist moves,’” she said. “You have to make sure that you’re available to do your job.”

—Staff writer Tess E. Sumner can be reached at [email protected].