After-School Specials

By TDmonthly Staff
October 2005

School is done and it’s time to play: at the school playground, the YMCA, a local youth club like the Boy Scouts, and park programs. According to recent studies, over 10 million children are taking part in some structured play after school, and that’s in America alone. TDmonthly Magazine talked to over 30 manufacturers about selling to the after-school market, and what the kids are playing with.

Barbara Goldman, president of Newsline Publications Inc., which produces It’s News To Me Newsflash! Cards, finds “the potential is huge.” Goldman sites the National League of Cities, the Department of Education and the After-School Corporation as a few of the potential organizations involved in this market.

Barbera Jerome, the mom who created NAMiTS of NAMiTS LLC, tested her toy in schools and the next thing she knew, the teachers were ordering it for their classes and after-school programs.

Art Schoendorff, co-owner of Applied Physics LLC has even taken his product, the Newton Car, to where the “big” kids spend their afternoons: the colleges.

The number of after-school programs, despite budget cuts, is growing, because parents want their children safe and sound. Juveniles are at the highest risk of being a victim of violence between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. [1] And the peak hour for juvenile crime is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. [2]

The market is large and getting larger, and as a revenue/distribution source, it’s something TDmonthly will examine closely in our future article.

[1]"Violence After School." Juvenile Justice Bulletin: 1999 National Report Series. Washington , D.C. : Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, November 1999.

[2]"Violence After School." Juvenile Justice Bulletin: 1999 National Report Series. Washington , D.C. : Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, November 1999.