In the absence of school and sustained structure during summer vacation, students’ education, at best, plateaus. At worst, it declines.

Students, on average, return to class in the fall with roughly two-thirds of their previous gains in reading, and no more than half of such gains in math, as estimated by the Colorado Department of Education.

Kids from affluent households can spend their vacation honing skills, whereas disadvantaged children start to fall behind.

The National Summer Learning Association calls this the achievement gap, and the pandemic made the problem more pronounced.

Summer programs can bridge this gap.

And on July 15, Gov. Jared Polis signed a state proclamation to officially acknowledge and kick off National Learning Week, which started on Monday and ends Friday, July 19.

The proclamation recognizes how “summer learning programs … maintain and advance students’ academic and social/emotional growth … and send young people back to school ready to learn.”

To celebrate, students across the state sent postcards to their local legislators to express why they love their summer programs, Taylor Gordon, the communications and events manager at Colorado Afterschool Partnership, said in an email.

The postcard campaign started last year with two participating schools. This year, 360 students across nine Colorado counties participated.

Students at the Mancos Summer Hub were some of them.

The summer program in Mancos started last year, welcoming students from Pre-K to eighth grade.

“The principal of our elementary school did an analysis and found that the kids who attended (the Hub) most days in the summer showed academic improvements beyond their peers in the fall,” said Katie McClure, the executive director of Mancos United.

It’s because kids in summer programs are more regulated, so they’re ready to learn when it’s time to go back to school, said Kim Russell, a first-grade teacher at the school.

“They get used to some routine,” said Russell. “An adult needs routine – everyone needs at least some degree of routine; otherwise we become disoriented in our day to day lives.”

Such programs also provide a safe, supportive place where students can be physically and mentally active and challenged.

“It helps lessen the summer gap we all talk about as teachers,” Russell said.

The community co-created the program, alongside Mancos United, to offer an all-summer solution to students being out of school while parents are working.

“We had parents who were quitting their jobs or finding new careers where they didn’t have to work in the summer,” said McClure. “There’s even stories of parents leaving kids home alone, with young kids taking care of younger kids because they had to go to work.”

Thus, kids aren’t the only ones benefiting from these programs: Parents do, too.

Last summer, the Summer Hub surveyed parents on stress levels for before and after it existed, McClure said.

“We did it on a scale of zero to 10. It went from all eight, nines, and 10s without Summer Hub, to all zero, ones, and twos with it,” said McClure. “It blew my mind.”

The program is funded by a grant through the Colorado Department of Education. It’s allowed 50 to 60 kids to attend the six-week Summer Hub program for free, from Monday to Thursday, for two years now.

But the grant money ran out, McClure said.

A different grant plus local donations will keep the Hub going next summer. After, it’ll cost money to attend on a sliding scale basis. That way, families who can afford to pay the whole amount, will, and those who can’t, will receive a full or partial scholarship.

“I will do everything in my professional power to keep this thing going,” McClure said.

This year, registration filled up in 64 minutes, even after adding 10 more spots. Seventeen families remain on a wait list to get in, McClure said.

The need for summer programs is clear.

Ninety percent of parents in Colorado favor public funding for summer learning opportunities, according to the Colorado Afterschool Partnership.

McClure said she’d love to help surrounding areas create similar programs by sharing their stories and data with legislators.

“It’s very intentionally designed, you know? We look at all the evidence for improved academics, for improved attendance, for decreased anxiety,” said McClure. “All of that evidence is … summarized by belonging, connection, and fun.”

Ultimately, helping students at a young age will “result in better graduation rates and better employment … and they’ll have better health outcomes, the evidence says,” McClure said.

“We’re such a tiny area, and we don’t have the resources that a bigger area does, you know, like YMCA’s or camps,” said Russell. “And to be able to offer this to our kids, is just really beneficial to everybody.”