Barbara Boxer: “I am very pleased to be offering this amendment which deals with afterschool programs in our country. The purpose of…”

“I am very pleased to be offering this amendment which deals with afterschool programs in our country. The purpose of this amendment is very clear. It is to ensure that every child who needs an afterschool program in our Nation will have that opportunity. This amendment does that by authorizing sufficient funds over the next 6 years so that no child has to be a latchkey child. What do I mean by a latchkey child? That is a child who comes home after school, both parents are working, no one is in the home, and they, in some cases, can get into trouble. How do we know this? We know this because the FBI tells us that most crime occurs among juveniles right after school. One can see on this chart that the juvenile crime rate peaks at the hour of 3 p.m. and continues and finally starts to go down in the evening hours. We know that juvenile crime occurs after school; that latchkey children do get into trouble after school. It is very clear. That is why we have so many police officers all over this Nation supporting our amendment and supporting afterschool programs in general.”