If we adjust pricing to a level which families feel is fair and reasonable, then we can actually make this a self-sustaining program again.
— Claire Love, Parks and Recreation Commission Member
KENT – Parents will pay $35 more per week to enroll their children in the town’s after-school program when it resumes in September, following months of uncertainty about its future.
The weekly rate will increase from $65 to $100. The town also approved a new $25 daily rate, up from $13 last year. Meanwhile, the late fee has been set at$5 for every five minutes.
Families enrolling more than one child will receive a 10% discount for the second child and a 15% discount for the third or more.
The program, held at Kent Center School, offers after-school enrichment activities for children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
The new 2026–27 pricing package also sets the weekly rate for a hybrid option at $125. The option includes sessions at the Kent Curiosity Lab, a local nonprofit that provides extracurricular learning opportunities for schoolchildren.
The fee structure, approved by the Parks and Recreation Commission on July 7, came after months of planning into how to make the program financially sustainable since the Commission nearly removed it from its 2026-2027 budget proposal citing cost.
During the July 7 meeting, Claire Love, a Parks and Recreation Commission member who chairs the After-School Program subcommittee, presented the proposal as community-informed and balanced.
“If we adjust pricing to a level which families feel is fair and reasonable, then we can actually make this a self-sustaining program again,” she said.
She explained that the plan was heavily influenced by a survey that yielded 35 responses from families, including families that currently utilize the program.
She said the survey indicated that most families could absorb the price increase. “What’s interesting is that at the $80-100 mark,” she said, “very few families find that to be too high,” according to the survey.
“My honest to god takeaway is that we’ve been massively underpricing this,” Love said. She added that there will be scholarship opportunities from the Kent Community Fund for low-income families.
Low enrollment and high operating costs caused the Commission to initially remove the after-school program from its fiscal year 2027 spending proposal, but outcry from parents encouraged members to reinstate the funds and program.
Love said the survey indicated more families may enroll next school year, and said that the group will assess the program in December to see if it’s breaking even or better. Last school year, fewer than 10 students were enrolled weekly in the program, with an average of about five students attending per day.
“The proof will be in the pudding of who actually signs up,” she said.
