Wonder how you can afford a program like The PoliteChild® when school budgets are already so tight? See how our programs can actually pay for themselves in as little as 11 school days for a typical public school!

Public Schools and Districts have HUGE budget issues already without the extra burden of No Child Left Behind. In spite of government promises to provide adequate funding through NCLB, it’s become clear that there isn’t a whole lot more money coming to schools in this given economic situation. Consequently, the strict academic performance standards imposed by No Child Left Behind force schools to squeeze as much academic learning as possible into a given school day.

So, if schools aren’t getting more money, how can they use the money they have more efficiently so they can accomplish their goals? By reducing the amount of time and productivity lost by the need to manage student behavior and maintain discipline in the classroom and on the playground.

The Financial Impact of Inadequate Social Skills - A Typical Scenario

In a recently reported year (2001/2002) the national average cost to educate one child in a public school for one year was $8,087.

Of that annual amount, a typical percentage of funds allocated to teaching activities – the area where the majority of the impact of behavioral problems is felt – is roughly 65%, or $5,257. While other areas of the school are also affected – such as administration and supervision – we are only using the teaching portion of the annual figure, to be conservative in our calculations.

According to the research group Public Agenda, 43% of the teachers in a recent study reported that they were spending more time managing classroom behavior than they were teaching (Where Are We Now?, April, 2003). That means over 4 out of 10 teachers are spending over 50% of their valuable classroom time on things other than academics!

Financially, the cost impact of this statistic is

50% x $5,257 = $2,628

that is being wasted on social issues management, per child, per year.

But, not every class or school experiences a 50% loss of time from social issues. We have prepared the following table showing the impact of smaller percentages of time spent on managing classroom conduct for some typical school sizes.

The figures in the table represent the cost impact of the issue of managing student behavior in the classroom. But, when viewed as a percentage of time lost out of a typical school year (180 days), the numbers are clearly disturbing.

Imagine what you could get done with another 45 days of school a year, or an additional $525,000 for a typical 400-student school?

Don't just take our word and our numbers for granted. Try our on-line calculator to put in the values for your school or district and see what your results are.

Regaining Lost Productivity

One simple way to “find” more money to spend on items that will directly impact academic performance is to regain money and time presently lost on behavioral issues.

The impact on time and funds lost due to social issues can be cut substantially using PoliteChild programs. How much can be regained? In the table below, we are using a low figure of a 30% reduction in behavioral management time and effort for the loss factors from the table above.

Not only does The PoliteChild make financial sense, it benefits schools in other ways. See how our programs can solve other common problems schools are facing today.