Flex Academies Announces New Measures to Enhance Afterschool Program Safety

As a parent, you worry. Your concern for your children’s safety and well-being overrides everything else in your world. It’s part of a parent’s “job description,” right?

So, it’s no surprise that recent events like the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, heighten parents’ awareness of the dangers in our world, and sadly, in our schools.

Flex Academies has long been a leader in afterschool program quality management and has a reputation for its solid focus on safety. If you know about Flex, you already know about its program vendor background checks and on-site coordinators, who handle all aspects of your school’s afterschool program, including making sure students are where they are supposed to be, all the time.

Now, Flex is taking additional steps forward in afterschool program safety.

“No one wants to over-state possible danger, but it’s important that we acknowledge and prepare for it,” says Flex Academies CEO Joshua Chernikoff. In a letter to parents, Chernikoff announced that Flex Academies has launched three important initiatives.

First, in addition to the background and security checks, Flex program vendor-instructors will now wear brightly colored “Official Enrichment Provider” lanyards. These have already been ordered and distributed to the vendors. The lanyards make the vendor-instructors easily identifiable on school grounds.

Second, Flex Academies is forming a first-of-its-kind, nationwide, enrichment activities preparedness board. The board will serve as a network of practitioners and experts whose focus is afterschool program safety.

“We’ll be consulting with administrators, members of the community, and other enrichment providers in each locality to make sure that afterschool activities, no matter who is managing them, are as secure and prepared as schools are during the school day,” says Chernikoff.

Finally, Flex Academies is working with its partner schools as they update their emergency preparedness. Flex will continue to follow its partners’ safety protocols as it implements additional policies.

Parent response to these additional safety initiatives has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Many parents have reached out to me, by both email and phone, to say that they were concerned about recent school attacks in the news, and happy that Flex Academies is taking even greater steps toward safety and security,” says Chernikoff.

While parenthood is probably your most rewarding job, it may also be your most worrisome one. Take some of that worry off your shoulders. Talk to the professionals at Flex Academies to find out how your school’s afterschool program can benefit from safe, quality program management. Contact Flex Academies today.