How to use the Expanded Learning Programs Web Map

California boasts the largest system of Expanded Learning programs in the nation, supporting over 4,500 before, after, and summer school programs that impact nearly 860,000 children and youth annually. These programs provide critical supports to children, families, and communities most in need. 

The  California AfterSchool Network  (CAN) has played a pivotal role in the expanded learning field for many years, providing professionals, advocates, and community members the tools and resources necessary to build high-quality out-of-school time programs in California. In this spirit CAN maintains an online database of California’s Expanded Learning programs, and has expanded it efforts by partnering with the  UC Davis Center for Regional Change  (CRC) to create an online interactive map to aid in information exchange and advocacy efforts across California.

In early 2019, CAN partnered with the CRC in a project funded by the National Conference on State Legislatures titled, “Data Visualization Strategies to Enhance Field Capacity for Advocacy.” Through this project, CAN seeks to leverage their existing database and ESRI products to create a visual representation of data visualization using a variety of publicly available data sources and GIS mapping technology. This work was informed by feedback from CAN’s Field Advisory Group.

The first step CRC undertook was to map the existing data from CAN's database of Expanded Learning Programs in California.

The CRC presented this map to CAN and CAN’s Field Advisory Group and collectively developed a set of variables that would help to inform advocacy efforts on behalf of CAN and Expanded Learning Programs across California. These data include secondary data, mainly from the Census and California Department of Education, within the following topic areas: Demographics, Education, Health & Environment, Poverty, and Workforce.

The next step the CRC undertook was to create a web app that could display all of the geoggraphic data on one platform. We used ESRI's Web App Builder in the ArcGIS Online platform to create this application.

Open the  Expanded Learning Programs web map  in your browser. It might take a several seconds to load. Click through the opening splash page after reading it by clicking OK. A map of California and the western states will appear, with icons on the left and in the top right of the web page. 

Click on the information tool in the upper right for more information on this project. Here is where you will also find links to download the datasets in Excel format to use in your own analysis and data visualizations. Contact the UC Davis  Center for Regional Change  if you would like a copy of the spatial datasets.

For more information on Expanded Learning Programs in California please contact the  California Afterschool Network . For information on the methodology or web map, please contact the UC Davis  Center for Regional Change  at (530) 752-3007 or  crcinfo@ucdavis.edu .