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April 9, 2026 By RESCHOOL

Real-World Learning Beyond the Classroom: Why Education Systems Must Adapt

Colorado students participating in real-world learning beyond the classroom

RESCHOOL Colorado shares what Phase 1 of Mapping Real World Learning revealed: the experiences that most shape young people’s identity, confidence, and future pathways often happen beyond the classroom, yet education systems still struggle to recognize and support them.

Mapping Real World Learning is a new RESCHOOL initiative grounded in a simple but often overlooked question: how do young people actually experience learning across their lives, and what does that mean for how we define readiness?

Most education systems measure the learning that happens inside the four walls of a classroom. But young people spend the majority of their time outside of them, developing skills, relationships, and a sense of direction through experiences that are rarely captured or valued in formal systems. Mapping Real World Learning aims to better understand this broader landscape of learning, document its impact, and explore how it might be more consistently recognized in the systems that shape opportunity, from education to workforce pathways.

In Phase 1, we partnered with two schools that intentionally integrate real-world learning into their models: Odyssey School of Denver and La Luz. Through interviews with students, families, and educators, we explored how young people are engaging in learning beyond the classroom and how they describe the impact of those experiences on their identity, confidence, and future pathways. What we heard was both consistent and revealing.

When asked where they learn something that matters to them, the answer is rarely “in math class.”

That is not an argument against schools. Schools are essential. But in conversations with young people, a clear pattern emerged: the experiences they describe as most formative, the ones that shape the sense of who they are and what they might become, are the ones happening beyond the classroom. Experiences when they’re engaged in real work with real people, and not just exercises in academics. After all, students are human beings, and like all of us, are motivated by the instinct to learn and to use what they learn to make a place for themselves in the world. Students described these experiences as transformative in building confidence, independence, and a stronger sense of identity. These experiences allow students to “try on” new roles such as leader, advocate, or collaborator, sparking deeper curiosity and giving them the confidence to pursue it independently. In after-school programs. On job sites. In community spaces and at home. With mentors, coaches, peers, and trusted adults who are not their teachers.

As one young person put it, “I’ve definitely developed the skill to advocate for myself… and if you advocate for yourself, you can get things done.”

What we heard points to a deeper issue: the experiences that most shape young people’s identity, confidence, and future pathways are still largely invisible to the systems designed to prepare them for life after school.

This is not news to anyone who works closely with young people. But it matters enormously for how we design learning systems, fund education, and think about who is responsible for supporting youth.

Phase 1: What We Heard

In Phase 1, we conducted in-depth interviews with students and families participating in school models that integrate real-world learning into the school day. Four findings emerged consistently across these conversations.

1. Out-of-school experiences are identity-shaping, not supplemental.

Young people describe out-of-school experiences as places where they build confidence, develop a stronger sense of self, and begin to understand what they are capable of. These environments place them in real situations with real expectations, real audiences, and real outcomes, where they can take meaningful risks while being supported by trusted adults and peers.

Through these experiences, young people begin to see themselves differently. They practice advocating for themselves, trying new roles, and navigating unfamiliar situations, often in ways that extend beyond what traditional classroom settings alone can offer.

These experiences are not peripheral.

Over time, this repeated exposure builds durable confidence and a greater willingness to take risks. As one student shared, “I am usually always anxious at the start and scared… but I just end up loving it… so what I’ve learned is just do it, even if you’re terrified.”

This reveals a fundamental misalignment: our systems tend to treat these experiences as enrichment, while young people experience them as core to who they are becoming.

2. Trusted relationships enable risk-taking and make learning meaningful.

When young people talked about the experiences that mattered most, they consistently pointed to a specific person, such as a teacher, mentor, or peer who helped them make sense of what they were doing and learning. Not a website. Not a brochure. A relationship.

In Phase 1, these relationships were most often with teachers who had built enough trust for students to take on the uncertainty and challenge these experiences required. That trust made risk-taking possible.

Parents observed this shift as well. One parent shared: “He’s himself now. He’s not scared to be himself… he is not afraid to make eye contact and share his voice with people.”

These relationships also help students build social capital, not just by expanding their networks, but by developing the skills to navigate them on their own.

This has direct implications for learner navigation. It is not just about access to options, but about sustained relationships that support risk-taking and sense-making over time.

3. No single adult or institution holds the full picture.

Schools see the school day. Program providers see program hours. Families see home. But no one sees it all.

Young people themselves are the only ones carrying the whole story of their learning lives—and they frequently lack the language, the tools, and the institutional support to make that story legible to others or even to themselves.

This reality reflects a broader structural mismatch: young people spend the majority of their waking hours outside of school, yet most systems remain anchored to what happens inside it.

This is not just a coordination challenge. It is a structural limitation. Our education systems were built around a single institution as the center of learning. They are not designed to recognize learning as distributed across people, places, and time.

4. “Readiness” and risk shape how families make decisions about learning

“Readiness” emerged as a consistent tension across interviews, particularly for families. While students demonstrated growth in confidence, independence, and problem-solving, many families continued to define readiness through traditional academic structures and benchmarks. This created an ongoing tradeoff in decision-making, where developmental gains were weighed against concerns about academic rigor and future preparedness.

At the same time, participation in real-world learning is shaped by risk tolerance and access to resources. Families with greater financial, social, or educational support were more likely to engage in nontraditional learning environments or extend these experiences beyond school. For others, perceived risks such as falling behind academically, financial cost, or uncertainty about outcomes limited participation.

Together, these dynamics highlight that real-world learning is not only a question of impact, but of access and belief. Expanding participation will require both stronger ways of demonstrating readiness and additional support for families navigating these decisions.

The Missing Piece: Access and Recognition

There is another reality embedded in these findings: access to these experiences is not evenly distributed.

Research shows that for every child in an afterschool program, several more are waiting to get in, with cost and availability acting as major barriers. At the same time, many forms of real-world learning—working in a family business, caring for siblings, contributing to community life—are happening every day but remain unrecognized and unsupported.

This creates a double inequity. Some young people lack access to high-quality opportunities. Others are already developing valuable skills through lived experience, but those skills are never named, documented, or valued in formal systems.

If we continue to treat real-world learning as optional or invisible, we risk reinforcing the very inequities we are trying to solve.

Why This Matters Right Now

The findings from the Mapping Real World Learning project arrive at an inflection point for American education.

Across the country, policy-driven mechanisms like Education Savings Accounts and the recently enacted federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, alongside shifts within public education such as career-connected learning, competency-based models, and microschools operating in both public and private contexts, are giving students more options than ever before. At the same time, the landscape is fragmenting. Young people are now more likely to be learning across a wider range of settings like public and private schools, afterschool programs, online platforms, community organizations, and workplaces, with less coordination across them than ever before.

The paradox of this moment is that as choice expands, the need for coherence grows. Families are being handed more options and less support for making sense of them. Young people, already navigating these experiences largely on their own, are being asked to do even more without an adult or system holding the full picture of their learning.

What Navigation Looks Like in Practice

This is exactly why RESCHOOL’s work on learner navigation and advocacy has never felt more urgent.

What we are learning from the Mapping Real World Learning project reinforces what we have seen in our direct work with families across Denver: that what young people need is not just access to more options, but someone who can help them connect those options into something coherent.

A learner advocate who helps a family “braid” the school day with afterschool, summer, and community learning. A navigator who understands that a young person’s internship experience and her history class are part of the same story.

This is not a small lift. It requires trust, time, and a relationship that is accountable to the learner, not to a school, not to a program, and not to a funder, but to the young person and family at the center.

What Comes Next

Phase 2 of the Mapping Real World Learning project is focused on a critical next step: making real-world learning more visible, measurable, and usable in ways that systems can actually recognize.

This includes:

Developing clearer ways to articulate what young people gain from these experiences, not just in terms of “confidence,” but in pathways, networks, and readiness for what comes next
Exploring how learning can be captured and tracked over time through more comprehensive student records, rather than one-time snapshots
Connecting these experiences to existing broader skill and readiness frameworks, or building new ones grounded in how young people actually learn
Helping young people and families translate these experiences into language that “counts” in applications, resumes, and future opportunities

This is about more than documentation. It is about building the connective tissue between lived experience and the systems that shape opportunity.

A System That Can See the Whole Learner

If we take young people seriously, we have to take their learning seriously, even when it happens outside the structures we are most comfortable measuring.

The question is no longer whether learning happens beyond school. We know that it does. The question is whether our systems are ready to recognize it, support it, and ensure that every young person has access to it.

These experiences are central to how young people build identity, develop agency, and navigate the world. Yet without systems to capture and recognize their impact, they will continue to be treated as enrichment rather than core to a young person’s development.

Because until we can see the full picture of how young people learn, we will continue to design systems that only support part of who they are, and only part of what they need to thrive.

You can follow our latest blogs and updates on our website and sign up for RESCHOOL’s newsletter to receive future pieces like this in your inbox: [Subscribe to RESCHOOL’s newsletter]

March 16, 2026 By RESCHOOL

Who Helps Families Navigate Learning When Choices Expand?

Youth participating in community-based learning with support from a trusted adult guide

As education choices expand, families need more than options, they need guidance. RESCHOOL Colorado explores why navigation and learner advocacy matter, and how trusted adults can help families connect school, out-of-school learning, and real-world opportunities into a more coherent path.

Across the country, families are hearing a familiar message: more education choices are coming.

Education savings accounts, tax credits, scholarships, work-based learning, early college, and expanded out-of-school programs. On paper, it looks like a wider set of opportunities for young people. In practice, it often looks like a more fragmented system that asks families to do even more work to find, evaluate, and piece together options.

That is the paradox at the heart of today’s education landscape. Choice is expanding, while the structure and accountability that families can rely on are thinning out. Many families now have more responsibility for navigating learning, but fewer supports to do it.

RESCHOOL sees this shift very clearly in Colorado. For more than a decade, we have worked alongside families, community organizations, and systems leaders to understand how young people actually experience learning across their days, years, and communities. What we hear again and again is simple:

Families do not just need more options. They need someone in their corner to help make sense of those options.

This is where navigation and learner advocacy come in.

From More Options To More Complexity

Two big shifts are happening at the same time.

First, learning is decentralizing. Young people spend roughly 80 percent of their waking hours outside of school. Those hours are filled, in very uneven ways, with sports, jobs, caregiving, community programs, cultural activities, and online experiences. New public and private funding tools are starting to acknowledge that learning happens across this wider ecosystem, not only inside school buildings.

Second, accountability is changing. Traditional systems often relied on a fairly rigid structure: one primary school, one set of tests, one district that holds most of the formal responsibility. In some new choice and tax credit programs, that structure is loosening or disappearing without something else in its place. Families are asked to make complex decisions, track learning, and coordinate schedules across multiple settings, often with little support.

Parents tell us they are excited about new possibilities, but they are also overwhelmed. They want to know:

Which options are a good fit for my child, not just in theory but in real life with our schedule, transportation, and responsibilities?

Who will help us connect school, out-of-school programs, and work-based learning so it adds up to something coherent?
If something goes wrong, who is responsible for fixing it?

These questions are not technical details; they are the daily reality for families trying to help their children thrive in a landscape that is changing faster than the support and governance structures around it.

What We Mean By “Learner Advocacy”

In this context, RESCHOOL has been exploring what it would look like to create a learner advocate network that can serve as a steady anchor for young people and their families.

A learner advocate is a trusted adult or team whose primary responsibility is to the learner, not to a single program or institution. That person or team:

Helps connect what happens in school, out-of-school time, and real-world experiences so it counts and builds toward something larger
Helps families understand the full range of learning options available to them
Supports them in making choices that reflect their values, goals, and constraints
Stays with the learner over time, checking in as needs and circumstances change.

This is not about replacing schools, counselors, or community organizations. It is about stitching together the work that many people are already doing and creating a clear point of accountability for the learner’s overall experience.

In a more dispersed system, where funding and learning are intertwined across multiple settings, someone needs to hold the full picture with the learner at the center. That is the role we see for learner advocates.

What Navigation Looks Like On The Ground

Navigation is easiest to understand in practice. In our work, learner advocacy has included things like:

Sitting with families as they use tools such as the Family Choice Journal to identify what matters most to them, including safety, culture, logistics, interests, and relationships
Walking them through application and scholarship processes for out-of-school programs, sports, tutoring, and cultural experiences
Helping them stack different opportunities so transportation and schedule work across school, after-school, and weekends
Connecting families to new programs that match their priorities, not just the most visible or best-funded options
Staying in touch over time, especially when a family’s work schedule changes, a young person’s interests shift, or a program closes

Families consistently describe how different it feels to have someone actively help them navigate, rather than simply sending a list of links or brochures.

For young people, navigation and advocacy can also show up as:

A trusted adult who asks about their interests and future plans, and then points them to programs, jobs, or courses that align with those interests
Someone who helps connect a job or internship to graduation requirements, industry credentials, or college credit
An advocate who notices when a student is overextended or under-supported, and helps adjust their mix of commitments
A guide who helps families and youth navigate system barriers such as language access, technology literacy, transportation, and access to supplies or equipment needed to fully participate

In short, navigation is not a static directory. It is a relationship-centered practice that helps families and youth move through a complex system without having to hold every detail on their own.

Why Navigation Matters Now

The need for navigation and learner advocacy is not new. Families have always relied on informal networks, individual teachers, and community leaders to help them find and access opportunities. What is new is the speed and scale of policy change.

With the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit moving toward implementation, and states like Colorado planning to participate, the number of possible programs, providers, and funding streams will likely grow. If that growth is not paired with navigation and learner advocacy, the benefits will tilt toward families who already have time, information, and connections.

In that scenario:

Families with flexible jobs and social networks will be more likely to hear about options, understand eligibility, and successfully apply
Families who speak languages other than English, work multiple jobs, or are less connected to formal systems will face higher barriers to participation
Out-of-school providers that already have development staff and administrative capacity will be better positioned to tap into new funding streams, while smaller community organizations struggle to keep up

Navigation and learner advocacy do not fix these inequities on their own. They do, however, make it more likely that new dollars reach the families and providers who have historically been left out, rather than simply layering more complexity on top of existing gaps.

How This Connects To Reschool’s Work In Colorado

RESCHOOL’s navigation and learner advocacy work is rooted in Colorado communities. Over the past decade, we have:

Supported funds that direct resources to families and providers for out-of-school learning
Invested in tools like the Denver Learning Ecosystem website to make opportunities more visible
Provided direct learner advocate support to working parents as an employee benefit
Worked alongside community partners who act as trusted navigators for families in their neighborhoods
Developed and tested resources such as the Family Choice Journal that help families reflect on their priorities and choices

Across these efforts, the throughline is clear. When families have both resources and navigation support, they can access experiences that match their children’s interests and needs. When out-of-school providers have stable, predictable funding and are included in program design, they can expand and sustain offerings that communities rely on. When someone is paying attention to how all of the pieces fit together for the learner, the system feels less like a maze and more like a network of possibilities. And when students can articulate what they have learned and how they have grown across these experiences, it can open doors to future opportunities in school, work, and beyond.

As new public funding tools come online, RESCHOOL will continue to share what we are learning with partners in Colorado and beyond. We see navigation and learner advocacy as essential parts of any serious effort to build and fund equitable learning ecosystems, not as optional extras.

Looking Ahead

Education systems are changing. The question is whether those changes will deepen or narrow access to meaningful learning for young people.

If we want more than a patchwork of programs, if we want ecosystems where all youth can discover their interests, build skills, and feel a sense of belonging, then navigation and learner advocacy have to be part of the design. Families should not be asked to carry the full weight of a more complex system on their own.

In the months ahead, RESCHOOL will be:

Continuing to resource navigation and advocacy models with community partners
Highlighting tools that support families as they make choices, including the Family Choice Journal
Sharing lessons from Colorado with policymakers, funders, and practitioners who are shaping new programs

If you are a funder, policymaker, provider, or intermediary working on out-of-school learning, we invite you to stay connected and to be part of this conversation.

You can follow our latest blogs and updates on our website and sign up for RESCHOOL’s newsletter to receive future pieces like this in your inbox: [Subscribe to RESCHOOL’s newsletter]

February 18, 2026 By RESCHOOL

Expanding Opportunities for Youth: Why Out-of-School Time is the Future of Learning

Colorado youth participating in community-based out-of-school learning supported by RESCHOOL funding

Young people spend most of their waking hours outside of school, yet funding for out-of-school time remains scarce and unstable. RESCHOOL Colorado shares what it is learning from Learning Dollars, Pick-a-Passes, and community pilots in Jefferson County and beyond, and offers design principles for public funding that actually reaches families.

Expanding opportunities for youth beyond school

Young people spend roughly 80% of their waking hours outside of school. These hours are where passions are discovered, identities are shaped, relationships are built, and safe spaces matter most. Yet out-of-school time (OST) funding remains scarce and increasingly unstable. Recent federal and local cuts are shrinking options for families, straining providers, and widening access gaps. At a time when young people need strong community ecosystems, we believe those ecosystems must be strengthened, not allowed to erode.

Sustaining equitable access to OST requires a multi-pronged funding strategy; no single source can meet the scale of demand. RESCHOOL is advancing both system-level and local solutions, collaborating with providers and advocacy partners to protect existing public funding while also leveraging new opportunities, including the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit. With Colorado now opting in, this policy has the potential to unlock new resources for schools, districts, and out-of-school providers and to expand direct-to-family funding beginning in 2027.

At the same time, we continue investing directly in families and communities. Through Pick-a-Passes, families receive year-long access to cultural institutions and state parks that might otherwise be out of reach. Through Learning Dollars, families receive direct funding to choose learning experiences aligned with their children’s interests and needs. Together, these strategies strengthen the broader ecosystem while ensuring families have meaningful options today.

What we’re learning from Learning Dollars and Pick-a-Passes in Colorado

In 2025, RESCHOOL:

Reached 100+ youth and families with Learning Dollars and Pick-a-Passes
Supported eight learning providers to expand programming in communities where families in our network live
Resourced two community-based partners to serve as learner advocates, helping families navigate access to funding
Expanded access across Denver, Jefferson County, Thornton, and Commerce City

One place where this work came to life in 2025 was Jefferson County.

In 2025, RESCHOOL partnered with community organizations in Jefferson County to pilot a privately funded Learning Dollars program. The goal was straightforward: give families flexible resources and support so their children could access high-quality learning experiences beyond school.

A few things defined this approach:

Funds went directly to families and out-of-school providers.

Families received Learning Dollars they could use for programs that fit their child, like sports, arts, tutoring, outdoor programs, cultural experiences, and more. Community-based out-of-school providers also received funding to expand or adapt offerings for families in RESCHOOL’s network.

Choice was guided, not scripted.

Instead of prescribing a narrow list of programs, families had the freedom to use their funds in ways that furthered their children’t interests and needs. To the extent families needed support accessing options, we focused on helping them identify what mattered most – schedule, transportation, cultural fit, their child’s interests – and then match those priorities with actual options.

Community partners were at the center.

Local providers, schools, and community organizations helped shape the design and outreach. They weren’t just “vendors,” they were co-designers and trusted messengers.

The JeffCo fund was one of three funds that RESCHOOL ran last year. Across these three funds, RESCHOOL raised $125,000 in philanthropic funding to expand opportunities for youth in various communities in and around Denver in 2025:

These dollars translated into concrete opportunities: sports leagues, summer and after-school programs, arts and outdoor experiences, and access to museums and cultural institutions. Families repeatedly told us it was one of the first times a system felt designed around what they needed, instead of asking them to squeeze into a narrow set of options.

Across those funds, the core pattern is the same: When dollars are flexible, paired with navigation support, and rooted in community relationships, they reach the kids they’re supposed to reach.

Why This Matters Now: A New Federal Tax Credit

This work is happening as the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit moves toward implementation, with Colorado among the states opting in. The program is designed to offer tax credits for contributions that can be used for both private school choice and enrichment/out-of-school learning for public school students.

The federal tax credit, expected to go live in early 2027, will allow Colorado to:

Attract new investment in our education system from individual donors
Fill persistent funding gaps, including for out-of-school learning
Provide a steady funding source to resource school districts and OST providers interested in participating in the program
Align philanthropic dollars with Colorado’s education, workforce, and student success priorities

RESCHOOL will be working hard with our partners and the state to ensure that the rollout of this program reflects what we’ve learned over the years working in partnership with communities, that it is designed in such a way that it reaches all families – especially those who face greater barriers to access, and that it gives families genuine agency in how to use the dollars they receive.

Design Principles For Public Funding That Actually Reaches Families

Based on what we’ve learned and what broader OST research confirms, a few design principles stand out. These are questions every public funding model, including tax credits and other choice programs, should be able to answer.

1. Start with what families say they need

Too many programs start with a funding mechanism and work backwards. Direct-to-family models flip that script. Public programs should build in listening and co-design with families who face the greatest barriers, use tools like the Family Choice Journal to surface priorities like safety, culture, logistics, and interests, and share information in clear, multilingual formats. If a funding model is hard to understand or navigate, it will quietly exclude the families it is supposed to serve.

2. Pair dollars with navigation and relationship-based support

Money alone is not enough when systems are complex. Our pilots show that trusted navigators and community-based staff are critical in helping families understand what funds can be used for, compare options, and solve for barriers like transportation, forms, or digital access. Public programs should treat navigation as a core cost, not an optional add-on, or benefits will skew toward families who already have time, information, and networks.

3. Fund a whole ecosystem, not just single programs

Families use Learning Dollars for sports, arts, tutoring, outdoor experiences, cultural institutions, and workforce-connected opportunities. That diversity is a strength. Public funding should recognize community-based organizations and cultural institutions as essential parts of the learning ecosystem, make it feasible for smaller organizations to participate, and invest in tools like the Denver Learning Ecosystem so families and partners can see what exists and where gaps remain. If we want young people to have a rich mix of experiences, we have to fund the ecosystem that makes those experiences possible.

4. Treat pilots as R&D for public systems

Pilots should be understood as research and development, not side projects. The core questions are: What did we learn about how funds were used? Who did we reach, and who did we miss? What would it take to move from a privately funded pilot to a sustainable, equitable public program? Keeping those questions at the center helps ensure innovation is tied to equity and scale, rather than happening on the margins.

What Comes Next

In 2026, RESCHOOL will keep using private funds to test models that show what’s possible when families are truly in the driver’s seat. At the same time, we’ll be working with partners to explore how future public funding, including the federal tax credit and related state policies, can be designed in ways that:

Direct resources to families and community providers
Build navigation and ecosystem infrastructure, not just isolated programs
Close, rather than widen, existing gaps in access and opportunity

If you’re a funder, policymaker, provider, or intermediary thinking about the future of out-of-school learning in Colorado, we’d like to be in conversation with you.

To follow along and get future pieces like this in your inbox, sign up for RESCHOOL’s email updates and keep an eye on our blog as we continue to unpack what we’re learning: [Subscribe to RESCHOOL’s newsletter]

January 29, 2026 By RESCHOOL

From Programs to Ecosystems: How RESCHOOL Is Expanding Learning Opportunities in Colorado

RESCHOOL Colorado reflects on more than a decade of work to move from programs to learning ecosystems: directing dollars to families and providers, mapping opportunities, and building the infrastructure that makes out-of-school learning possible for more young people in Colorado.

Over the last thirteen years, RESCHOOL Colorado has been asking a simple but disruptive question:

What would it take for young people to learn everywhere, not just in school, and for families to have real power in shaping that learning?

Our 2025 Impact Report compiles some of our efforts to date in answering that question: directing dollars to families and community-based providers, developing tools that make learning opportunities more visible, and partnering with families to define what “good” looks like in a truly learner-centered ecosystem.

As we move into 2026, we’re deepening that work with a clearer focus on the infrastructure it takes to make expanded learning possible and sustainable. Below, you can read through a few of the key lessons that are shaping that focus.

When Dollars Follow Families And Providers, You See The System Differently

Much of RESCHOOL’s work has centered on a basic shift: move resources closer to the people and places where learning actually happens.

Through Learning Dollars, Provider Dollars, and Learner Advocates, we’ve directed more than $1 million into Colorado communities since 2013, in partnership with over 50 organizations and 15,000 youth and families. These funds have supported tutoring, summer camps, arts and cultural programs, sports, STEM experiences, and more.

Here are a few patterns that have become clear:

Families use flexible dollars to fill the “in-between” spaces of learning: after school, weekends, and summers, where enrichment is often out of reach without additional support.
Community-based providers use modest, targeted funding to expand or stabilize programs that are deeply rooted in local culture and relationships.
Learner Advocates help families navigate options, build trust, and connect dollars to opportunities in ways that match each child’s interests and needs.

This work has reinforced a simple insight: equity is not only about creating more programs; it is about who controls resources, who can actually access them, and who has support along the way.

Mapping And Listening Make An “Invisible” Ecosystem Visible

Another thread in our work has focused on making out-of-school learning ecosystems easier to see and understand.

Tools like the Denver Learning Ecosystem site start to answer basic questions for families and partners: Where are the opportunities? Who are they for? How do you get in the door?

At the same time, our Invest in Families briefs, co-authored with Outschool.org, uplift what families say they need from funding mechanisms and support systems: clearer information, help navigating options, and more flexible, dignified ways to access learning that fits their lives.

Taken together, this work points to two related truths:

Information matters. If families cannot easily see and compare opportunities, the ecosystem effectively doesn’t exist for them.
Navigation matters. When systems are complex or fragmented, families with the most time, money, and social capital can piece things together; others are left behind.

Mapping and listening do not solve those challenges on their own, but they give communities, funders, and policymakers a clearer picture of where the ecosystem is working and where it is not.

Out-Of-School Learning Needs Real Infrastructure, Not Just More Programs

As we’ve reflected with partners on what it actually takes to build equitable learning ecosystems, a pattern has emerged: we are not just talking about more programs. We are talking about infrastructure.

Drawing on RESCHOOL’s experience in Colorado and emerging field conversations, we see at least six components that matter for out-of-school learning infrastructure:

Human infrastructure: Families need people they trust to help make sense of options, funding, logistics, and fit. Learner Advocates and similar roles act as navigators who sit with families, ask good questions, and help remove barriers.
Information infrastructure: Communities need tools that keep information about opportunities current, localized, and easy to use. Mapping platforms and communication tools can bring providers into view and give families timely, language-accessible information.
Transportation infrastructure: Even the best program is irrelevant if a young person cannot physically get there. Transportation stipends, transit passes, mobile programming, and other community-designed solutions are essential for many families.
Financial infrastructure: Mechanisms like Learning Dollars and other direct-to-family funds put resources in families’ hands and allow them to choose what fits. Design details matter here: how funds are accessed, what they can be used for, and how easy they are to navigate all shape who benefits.
Credentialing infrastructure: If out-of-school experiences never show up in transcripts, applications, or credentials, their value is easier for systems to ignore. Communities need ways to document and recognize real-world learning so that skills and experiences travel with young people into future education and work.
Capacity infrastructure: Many of the most meaningful learning experiences happen in small, community-rooted organizations that are under-resourced. Funding, common frameworks, and professional learning can help these providers connect to larger systems without losing what makes them unique.

When these pieces are missing or underdeveloped, even well-designed programs struggle to reach the young people who could benefit most. When they are present, expanded learning ecosystems become more accessible, resilient, and fair.

How These Lessons Are Shaping Reschool’s 2026 Focus

These threads are not separate. They are shaping how we think about RESCHOOL’s role and priorities in 2026:

Policy and systems change: Our direct work with families, providers, and navigators gives us grounded insight into how public funding mechanisms could better support out-of-school learning. As conversations about tax credits, ESAs, and other family-directed funds evolve, we are focused on sharing what we’ve learned about design choices that advance equity rather than deepen gaps.
High school and postsecondary pathways: Mapping Real World Learning is helping older youth name, document, and build on the skills they gain in jobs, internships, and community programs. This connects directly to credentialing infrastructure and to questions about how systems recognize learning that happens outside of school.
Out-of-school time infrastructure: We are continuing to learn alongside families and partners about how human, information, transportation, financial, credentialing, and capacity infrastructure show up in different communities, and what it takes to strengthen them over time.
RESCHOOL as a lab and learning partner: We see RESCHOOL’s role as both builder and listener: testing models with families and providers, documenting what we learn, and sharing that learning with funders, policymakers, and other communities who are working on similar questions.

For now, the core insight is simple: if we want learning to happen everywhere, we have to build the infrastructure that makes that possible for every young person, not just a lucky few.

If you’d like to follow along as this work evolves, you can sign up for RESCHOOL’s email newsletter here: [Subscribe to RESCHOOL’s newsletter]

March 4, 2025 By RESCHOOL

Lessons from Closing the Enrichment Gap

Every child deserves the opportunity to thrive, but for many, a zip code determines their access to vital enrichment opportunities that foster growth and success. The enrichment gap—the disparity in out-of-school learning opportunities between wealthy and low-income families—has long been a barrier to educational equity. Addressing this gap isn’t just a matter of access; it’s a matter of equity, social mobility, and long-term success.

What Is the Enrichment Gap?

The enrichment gap refers to the disparity in access to out-of-school learning opportunities, with low-income children accumulating 6,000 fewer hours of enrichment by 6th grade than their wealthier peers. This includes everything from tutoring and extracurricular activities to field trips and summer camps—critical experiences that spark curiosity, build confidence, and improve academic outcomes.

Real-Life Examples of Impact

Microgrant programs are proving that closing the enrichment gap is possible:

My Spark Denver granted $1,000 in prepaid debit cards to 4,000 middle school students, focusing on students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. This program supported enrichment programs like after-school activities and summer camps.
RESCHOOL’s Learning Dollars Fund emphasized co-design with families, providing flexible funds that covered costs for local and personalized learning activities.
Outschool.org’s Virginia Learning Acceleration Grant helped 12,500 families access tutoring, special education, and enrichment programs, funding over 300,000 hours of learning.

These programs not only enrich the lives of individual children but also strengthen communities by supporting local vendors and organizations. By bridging gaps in access and opportunity, these programs create lasting benefits for both families and the communities they live in.

The Importance of Co-Design and Flexibility

What makes these programs successful? Co-designing policies and programs with families ensures that their needs and preferences are at the center. Flexibility in how funds are distributed—such as through preloaded debit cards —removes barriers and ensures funds are used effectively.

The lessons from these programs are clear: closing the enrichment gap requires equity-driven, family-centered solutions. Download our new policy briefs to learn more.

February 25, 2025 By RESCHOOL

Why Direct-to-Family Funding Is the Future of Education

For decades, education funding has largely been channeled through institutions, leaving families with little say in how resources are allocated to meet their children’s needs. Direct-to-family funding challenges the status quo by empowering families to make critical decisions about their children’s education. Programs like microgrants and Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are demonstrating that when families are trusted and empowered, the results can be transformative—not just for individual children, but for entire communities.

The Benefits of Direct-to-Family Funding

Direct-to-family funding offers unparalleled flexibility, allowing families to make choices that align with their children’s unique needs and interests. Whether it’s tutoring, enrichment activities, or specialized educational resources, these programs address gaps that traditional funding often overlooks.

Research shows that programs like these can close the “enrichment gap,” which disproportionately impacts low-income families, limiting their children’s access to learning opportunities outside of the classroom.

When not designed with equity at the center, these programs can unintentionally deepen existing disparities, benefiting those with more resources while leaving behind families facing greater barriers to access.

Success Stories from RESCHOOL and Outschool.org

Programs across the U.S. are proving that giving families control over resources yields incredible results, especially in underserved communities. Both RESCHOOL and Outschool.org have piloted innovative microgrant programs with remarkable results:

RESCHOOL’s Learning Dollars Fund has invested over $1 million in Colorado communities to expand learning opportunities and to support families in accessing enrichment activities like camps, sports, and tutoring, with $500-1,000 microgrants distributed through flexible payment methods such as debit cards, bank transfers, or PayPal.
Outschool.org supported over 12,500 families in Virginia with the Learning Acceleration Grant program, resulting in over 300,000 hours of tutoring and educational therapy. This initiative addressed core academic needs like special education services.

These stories prove that empowering families isn’t just an innovative idea—it’s a solution that works.

Opportunities and Risks

Direct-to-family funding has the potential to increase educational access, flexibility, and equity—allowing families to choose the best opportunities for their children’s learning. When designed effectively, these programs can break down financial barriers and help students engage in tutoring, enrichment activities, and specialized support tailored to their needs.

However, if not implemented with equity in mind, these programs can unintentionally reinforce existing disparities. Families with more time, resources, and digital access may be better positioned to navigate funding applications and make informed choices, leaving behind those facing systemic barriers like limited English proficiency or digital literacy. Ensuring streamlined access, family support, and clear guidance is critical to maximizing the benefits of direct-to-family funding while mitigating risks.

The Role of Philanthropy

Philanthropy has been instrumental in seeding and scaling these models. Early investments have provided proof of concept, inspiring policymakers to adopt publicly funded initiatives. Programs like Denver’s My Spark were inspired by RESCHOOL’s small-scale Learning Dollar pilots funded by private donors that served as proof of concept, eventually scaling to a citywide initiative.

The Role of System Leaders

For direct-to-family funding to be effective, system leaders must ensure equitable access, streamlined distribution, and strong family support. Removing barriers, simplifying processes, and providing clear guidance help ensure funds reach those who need them most, making these programs truly impactful and scalable.
Direct-to-family funding is more than a trend—it’s the future of education. Your support can help expand these programs and empower more families. Download our new policy briefs to learn how you can make an impact.

July 31, 2024 By RESCHOOL

Provider Highlights: July 2024

Thriving learning ecosystems don’t happen without the deep commitments of learning providers dedicated to designing fun, engaging, and affordable programming for youth. At RESCHOOL, we recognize the immeasurable impact of out-of-school providers on kids’ and families’ lives, and that’s why we’ve invested over $250,000 (and counting) in providers across Colorado over the past few years. Contributing to healthy and thriving communities across racial and socioeconomic lines involves investing in the visions of locally rooted and community-championed organizations focused on conserving the knowledge and wisdom of deep local histories while propelling expansive futures of possibility into each child. We’d like to take a moment to highlight some of the great work happening in organizations across the Denver Metro area that we’ve been inspired by over the past few months who focused on precisely these visions – check them out below!

Colorado Youth Mariachi

This year, the Colorado Youth Mariachi Program celebrated its 6th Annual Noche de Mariachi where the talent and joy of over 60 mariachi students were showcased as they performed alongside their peers in front of their families, friends, and larger community. Rooting in the rich tradition of mariachi culture and music making, the Colorado Youth Mariachi Program has been offering classes to youth and students of all ages since 2019 and has quickly become a vital part of the local music fabric in Denver and beyond.

La Alma Jaguar Leadership Club

Jaguar Club is 13 years into the steadfast work of ensuring that youth in Denver have an opportunity to spend their summers exploring and uncovering their unique leadership styles within their communities. This year, Jaguar Club supported 60 Denver youth in developing leadership skills, team-building skills, and work experience so that they could visualize themselves as care-centered leaders in their communities. Learn more about their efforts via this recent post!

In Lak’ech Denver Arts

This summer, youth participating in In Lak’ech Denver Arts’ “Puppets in Westwood” summer program got to delve into creating handmade puppets, props, and backgrounds to retell different cultural stories. By blending youth programming with the expertise and wisdom of local artists, this program honored creativity and tradition proudly. From painting classes to folklórico programming and puppetry, In Lak’ech Denver Arts’ mission is to increase access to community-responsive arts education for 5th-12th graders who live in SW Denver in ways that mirror their culture and heritage back to them. Check out more of their work and keep up with them by following them on Facebook.

June 10, 2024 By Selamawit Gebre

Expanding Futures in Adams County with Partnerships and Access to Hands-On Learning

Partnering with community-based organizations and families is a core component of RESCHOOL’s work in creating more equitable learning ecosystems. Over the past several months, RESCHOOL has been partnering with organizations in Adams County to create more access to learning opportunities that reflect families’ needs and wants. In this blog post, we’ll highlight the significant work happening in Adams County through these partnerships.

By partnering with Cultivando, RESCHOOL provided $10,000 in grants to educational providers such as the Colorado Soccer Foundation’s Afterschool Soccer Program and Colorado Youth Mariachi, which families identified as providers they wanted to see in their community. In the Colorado Soccer Foundation’s case, this commitment to community collaboration provided certification for young referees and an after-school soccer program at a local elementary school and extended opportunities to work and engage within and beyond their community spaces. These community initiatives help cultivate a sense of belonging, responsibility, and leadership among participants while enhancing their exploration of future opportunities.

*Youth participating in the Soccer After-School Referee Program offered by the Colorado Soccer Foundation.*

Furthermore, through this partnership, RESCHOOL has provided $25,000 in Learning Dollars to 25 families participating in parent and child advocacy connected to Cutivando and the Brighton Housing Authority, enabling them to purchase educational resources and experiences that best suit their needs. These funds are facilitating access to diverse educational materials, from books and art supplies to technology like computers and tablets, as well as extracurricular activities that include sports equipment and musical instruments. In addition, each family can enroll in RESCHOOL’s Pick-A-Pass program, where families are offered access to an annual membership or pass to cultural institutions and state parks of their choosing. These approaches support various educational paths and foster youth exploration and development of diverse interests, demonstrating RESCHOOL’s commitment to holistic education in partnership with families.

RESCHOOL’s work in Adams County has also included curated community resources and discounts through other partnerships and programs in digestible ways to share with families. For instance, the Activity Booklet and the new Family Choice Journal developed by RESCHOOL guide families in utilizing their Learning Dollars effectively, tailored to children’s interests and family contexts.

These collective efforts are a testament to what is achievable when communities, providers, and organizations unite. This work is a profound reminder that equitable learning opportunities should be accessible, adaptable, and inclusive, ensuring every child and family can reach their full potential.

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June 6, 2024 By Selamawit Gebre

Funding Families in the Mountain West: Lessons Offered at a Recent Convening

What does creating “wins” for students and families as they navigate current educational landscapes and community-wide learning opportunities look like? Who gets to decide what a “win” is, and what processes and infrastructures get designed during this decision-making? In April 2024, roughly 30 nonprofit leaders, educational providers, and funders from across the country gathered in Denver, CO to explore these questions and more. This convening, “Funding Families in the Mountain West,” was created as a collaboration between Bellwether, RESCHOOL, and the Donnell-Kay Foundation to offer space for attendees to share about, grapple with, and learn from the challenges and opportunities in getting flexible funding to families and young people to participate in a variety of learning opportunities both in and outside of the classroom.

The convening kicked off with participants engaging in a few rounds of REVOLVE, a game designed to encourage players to step outside their everyday routines to gain more perspectives when identifying and creating more expansive learning opportunities alongside learners. As attendees explored multiple vantage points of navigating through a variety of decisions many young people encounter in childhood and adulthood (similar to the ones participants themselves may have experienced in their own upbringing), attendees rooted themselves in empathy, curiosity, and exploration to kick off the topics covered in the sessions throughout the convening.

Program Design and Administration

From statewide initiatives to citywide collaboratives and nonprofit programs, participants engaged in lively discussions that offered insights into how different geographies have designed and administered programs that provide youth and families with direct cash to pursue varied learning experiences. By first digging into an overview of the promises and tensions faced more broadly in the national landscape of microgrants for supplemental (out-of-school) learning and education savings accounts, Yes Every Kid led us through the ins and outs of various policy and implementation considerations. These included building consensus on language and policy descriptions around matters of eligibility (in both incomes and approved uses of funds), determining accessible ways to distribute funds to families (via debit cards, wallet platforms, etc.), and adequately building capacity within programs to meet the evolving needs of families and youth in changing educational landscapes.

We then heard about programmatic efforts in three Mountain West states—Colorado, Idaho, and Utah—and some of the strengths and challenges they have encountered. In Colorado, we heard from the My Spark Program – a $5 million Denver-based microgrant program built on the belief that afterschool programs and enrichment opportunities are must-haves and not nice-to-haves. Through this public and philanthropic partnership, 4,000 youth in low-income households receive $1,000 each for out-of-school programming. Similarly, RESCHOOL’s Learning Dollars Program leverages the flexibility of philanthropic dollars and strategic community-based partnerships to invest resources in families and young people as they explore learning opportunities in their communities. In hearing from those close to Idaho’s Empowering Parents Grant Program, a $50 million statewide microgrant serving about 20,000 students each year, we learned about how this evolving initiative got its start as a philanthropic effort determined to support Idaho’s youth in addressing learning loss due to Covid impact. To round out this session, we heard from Utah Fits All about the importance of grassroots efforts consisting of statewide parent awareness campaigns in securing scholarship funding that families across income levels can access, up to $8000 per child.

As attendees learned more about each program, discussions about the challenges and tensions emerged about how to best ensure equitable opportunities for families and young people to engage meaningfully in these programs, how to keep up with the flexible and iterative nature of educational landscapes, how to continuously fund these kinds of programs at the state and local level, and how to build robust provider ecosystems that meet the needs and wants of families.

Accessibility, context, and trust

Designing programs that reflect young people’s and families’ needs and wants requires developing deep trust and ensuring accessibility across ability, language, and technology. The role that community-focused organizations play in supporting young people and families as they navigate the growing complexities of educational provider landscapes cannot be understated. During this part of the day, we heard from family-facing organizations in Arizona and Colorado, NavigateED, RESCHOOL, and Love Your School, about the considerations families make when engaging with their programs, the more extensive education and learning resources available to them, and the measures of accountability organizations employ to ensure privacy of sensitive information. Each organization described the demographic ranges of their constituents, which varied in terms of socioeconomic class (with a concerted effort to serve low-income families), race and ethnicity (majority Latinx communities), and disability status. From supporting families in designing their own community-centered learning solutions to providing pathways to support access to mental health resources, these organizations described how their work is rooted in contextualized approaches to supporting families as they navigate complex learning environments.

Leaders from these organizations also mentioned their role in supporting parents in extending learning at home, such as cooking or learning instruments, by engaging their children in out-of-school experiences that expand and reinforce those learnings. Some challenges raised during this panel were finding the right balance between amplifying platforms for families to share their stories with the broader public and ensuring that all storytelling efforts are rooted in respect and integrity while accounting for potential harms of tokenization, extraction, and privacy breaches. Embedding families and young people in the process of how they would want to share their experiences, in what language, and the kinds of questions even considered were all offered as ways to help build and sustain trust with constituents while working on systemic efforts to improve more equitable access to expansive learning opportunities.

Building and sustaining thriving learning ecosystems

Building and sustaining robust landscapes of responsive educational providers who are attuned to the needs and wants of young people and families is crucial. Ensuring that families can adequately find and access relevant programming requires coordinated efforts. Many of these aspects were highlighted during a panel focused on supporting the equitable ecosystems of educational providers and technology providers whose platforms enable families to spend their funds. We heard from Moonshot edVentures, a Denver-based organization working to co-create equitable educational provider ecosystems that reflect the diversity of youth and communities, about how they help equity-driven leaders launch community-centered learning solutions that span a variety of formats and models. Outschool.org shared many of the learnings they have had in working with states and districts to support families in accessing and spending funding made available as part of new initiatives and raised larger questions for participants around navigation and accountability in how funds are implemented and supported. To round out this discussion, we also heard from Merit about the importance of data sharing and continuous learning amongst technology platform providers as new approaches continue to be explored in getting funding directly to families in ways that are as flexible and user-friendly as possible.

Overall, this panel highlighted the importance of solid data infrastructures and feedback loops, which can better inform decision-making and incentives across stakeholders by prioritizing ways to ensure that real-time learnings are applied iteratively. Furthermore, it highlighted how much due diligence and time is required to cultivate educational provider ecosystems, the importance of providing proper navigational support to families, and creating timely feedback loops between stakeholders. Continuing to parse out how to get resources to families equitably requires deep commitment from educational providers, program administrators, and technology providers alike, and digging into this session opened up many possibilities for exploring this further.

Summary

By the end of the convening and after multiple discussions, it was clear that it takes an ecosystem of players across states, cities, and local communities committed to cross-sector partnerships to ensure that all children can access meaningful learning opportunities both in and out of school. Ensuring deep investments in low-income families and designing infrastructural supports that can equitably expand access to learning experiences across socio-economic status is critical to ensuring that opportunity is not limited by income or race. Furthermore, encouraging educational providers, program administrators, and technology providers to commit to sharing information and learning together from implementation about what is working as expected and what isn’t, and pivoting when possible can help support more equitable learning environments that reflect greater accessibility and culturally contextual programming. As attendees of the convening wrestled with significant questions in pursuit of creating more opportunities in partnership with families, each likely left with more questions and more avenues of exploration to uncover.