Schools

Playworks coaches work on-site exclusively in low-income schools. To bring Playworks to your school, at least 50 percent of enrollment must be eligible for free and reduced lunches. To learn more, contact the executive director listed on our web site for your city. S/he will be able to provide the information you need to bring Playworks to your school.

If your school does not meet our low-income requirements, we can bring play to your school through Playworks Training. Our training is designed to teach parents, teachers, staff and other adults how to organize healthy and inclusive play and to help youth learn lessons about teamwork, communication and conflict resolution that enable them to return to the classroom ready to learn.

Rates are based on content, training length, the number of participants and travel fees. Typically, trainings are approximately $1,200 for up to four hours and $2,000 for workshops requiring 4-7 hours.

Playworks is expanding and looking for new cities that wish to bring play our direct service program to their schools and students. To learn more, please contact info@playworks.org. We may not have plans bring our direct service your city this year, but hopefully we will in future years. We do bring Playworks Training to cities all across the US. Our vision is that one day every child will have an opportunity to play every day.

Playworks' school-based programs are designed to start on the first day of school. We recruit our staff throughout the year, train them in the summer, with programming set to start at the beginning of the school year. We generally do not start up programming mid-year.

School Interest Forms are generally sent out in January of every year. After conducting school site visits we make decisions beginning in March on which schools we will be working with during the upcoming year. Schools which are not selected are placed on our waiting list. If we are currently in your city or region, contact your local Playworks branch. If you are in a potential expansion region, please contact the national Playworks office.

The majority of schools use funding within their own school budget. Some schools supplement their funds through external sources such as grants and community support.

Each of our partner schools pays $25,500 per year for the on-site program. This cost covers a trained, full-time coach for the entire school year. We also ask schools to provide a basic set of playground equipment (balls, cones, jump ropes, etc) that usually cost no more than $300 and can be supplemented by existing equipment at the school site.

Playworks is responsible for training and overseeing the work of each coach. We assign each school site a program manager, whose role is to supervise and support a group of 8-12 coaches. Program managers are responsible for overseeing and maintaining program quality at each school site and serve as the primary contact person for school administrators.