Community Education is encouraging parents to sign their children up early for after-school care.

Debbi Wade Jordan, director of Community Education, said if children are registered early, the program will be able to accommodate them as soon as school starts.

If parents wait until a few weeks before school starts, Community Education officials might not have time to enter some children’s information, keeping them from being able to attend after-school care during the first few days of school, she said.

“When you have hundreds of parents doing that, it really becomes an issue,” Jordan said.

After-school care is a program for children whose parents are still at work when school is over for the day or for children who just want to participate in the activities, she said.

The children do activities including playing games, doing homework and making crafts, said Samantha Schroader, a former program supervisor at Alvaton Elementary School.

She said the program is a way for children to socialize and meet students from other classes in their schools.

The children’s favorite activity tends to be playing outside, Schroader said.

Jordan said after-school care is convenient for parents because their child’s homework is usually done before they pick them up, leaving time in the evenings for other family activities such as sports or eating dinner together.

The program is offered at most elementary schools in the area and at Bowling Green Junior High School, Jordan said. Each school has at least one supervisor and assistant supervisor. Some have more staff members.

A few schools that start later have before-school care programs that start at about 6:30 a.m., she said. Those schools include Briarwood, Cumberland Trace, Natcher, Plano and Rockfield elementary schools.

The after-school program usually has about 1,200 children in it, Jordan said.

Schools’ programs vary in the number of participating children from about a dozen to 200, she said.

The registration fee for the program is $30 per child. The program costs $115 each month, which includes all materials, snacks and an accident insurance policy.

— For more information or to get registration forms for the program, visit www.commed.us. The forms can be dropped off at the Community Education office at 1700 Patrick Way, Suite B.