Carrollton City Schools made the decision to disband the system’s 3 O’Clock Groove afterschool program at the junior high because it could no longer afford the program. The closing is part of a statewide trend.

The program enrollment had dropped from a high of 60 children at the beginning of the year to as few as 15 students on some days.

“The numbers just got lower and lower,” said Mary Grimmett, director of the afterschool programs for the school system. “It just was not enough money coming in to pay for everything.”

There were several reasons for the drop in enrollment. Some families took their students out when they lost their jobs. Others turned to the free activities offered after school, such as clubs and athletics. Others enrolled their students in the new Boys and Girls Club when it opened.

The school system made the decision to close the program while trying to trim its budget as state funding was cut and property tax revenue took a nose dive.

“Several parents were concerned,” Grimmett said. “If I had a lot of kids, and there are a lot of kids, but the parents aren’t willing to pay for it and I understand that. Forty-nine dollars for a week, that’s a lot for parents right now.”

The local closing is part of a larger trend that is spreading across the state, according to a survey by the Afterschool Alliance, an advocacy group working to ensure that all children have access to afterschool programs.

While the need for afterschool care is on the rise, options are narrowing due to budget cuts and rising costs, the survey found. Of the 147 afterschool programs that responded to the survey, 92 percent said the recession would impact their budgets and 22 percent said a significant loss of funds will cause cutbacks or even closures.

The Carrollton Housing Authority also offers an afterschool program. The program is supported by a five-year, renewable federal abstinence-education grant. The program received notice that the grant would be shortened to a four-year renewable grant, said Sandra Morris, outgoing director of the Carrollton Housing Authority. The grant will also be cut 6 percent for its fourth year.

The program, which began three years ago, is free and open to any student in the community. It operates in Mt. Zion Community Center and Lakeview Paradise, Bledsoe Street, Thomas, Griffin and Ingram Homes. It’s seeing an increase in students, said Jodie Goodman, who helps organize the program. The program sees an average of 70 students a day.

“Since October 1 of 2008, we’ve served 205 youths,” Goodman said. “That number is growing probably on a daily basis.”

The program always sees a seasonal increase in the summer, and she doesn’t know if the increase will continue once school starts.

Although the afterschool program is funded by an abstinence-education grant, it offers more than that to the students.

“We did a lot of other things like career building,” Morris said.

The programs are an important part of the childhood of many children, especially those from low-income families.

“Afterschool programs serve a high-need population; more than three-fourths (76 percent) of students who attend these programs in Georgia qualify for free or reduced-price lunches,” Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant wrote in a statement. “When programs must charge or raise fees or reduce hours, more children will be unsupervised and at risk after the school day ends. It is alarming that more than half the respondents in the state (62 percent) say their budgets are inadequate to meet the needs of students and families. We have to do better by our kids.”

That’s one of the reasons the junior high school program may have seen the drop in participation, Morris said. It may have been just too expensive for those who most needed it.

The middle and elementary afterschool programs will remain in session, but the cost w ill rise $3, to $52 a week, next year to accommodate the rise in minimum wage that takes effect this summer. Grimmett hopes the extra fee won’t be a deterrent for parents in the program.

“We’re going to struggle, because we did lose kids last year in all three programs,” she said. “I have no idea what I’m going to have when I get back.”