We are concerned we will not be able to send our son to Brooks (two blocks from our house) due to a lack of after school availability.

It’s a shame that MPS has been consistently failing to offer after school! It’s a different time that 10 years ago with so many working parents, changes must happen now! 

Our children are currently in preschool that runs 745am-530p. We don't yet know how we will manage when they reach elementary level. 

With Medford home prices as high as they are two parents have to work. MPS can easily add staff and run an afterschool program. I work in a neighboring school district and we don’t have these problems. 

Both of my boys are forced out of MPS simply due to the constant failure of after school programs. We have raised the concerns to school committees and Superintendent for a few years in row., Nothing has been done! This'll be THE reason we tax payers leave Medford. 

I thought it was a fresh lottery every year, but it appears that it’s just the first year (K for most), and after that you have “secured a spot on the wait list”, but if your first lottery draw was near the bottom, you are cemented into a terrible spot for the next six years. 

The lack of available after-school care, especially for K-2 grades, came as a complete shock... we came to realize that there was no available spot for us in established options. This problem seems particularly bad in Medford compared to other neighboring towns, and is a very real civic problem that impacts Medford's desirability as a place to raise a young family. 

I​t is stressful as a household with two working parents to not have easy access to basic care for your child. Entrance to the Medford after school program is not managed in an equitable manner. We have been on the waitlist for 3 years and the program director has told us we will likely never get in.  As a Medford resident for 12 years this is the biggest issue that I have 

Medford is a thriving city with lots of young families, but we are significantly behind the times. Our system assumes 1 parent (usually the woman) is staying home. That is not a 2022 reality. If you want to support working parents - particularly working women... provide public school offerings [for after school care] that reflect a normal 8 hour working day. 

Getting in via the [after school program] lottery felt better than winning the actual lottery!