ATTENDANCE BARRIERS FOR EARLY COLLEGE EXTRA-CURRICULAR COHORT EXPERIENCES- CASE STUDY FROM KANSAS CITY EXPLORES EARTH AND ENVIRONMENT

Kansas City Explores Earth and Environment (KCE3) is a pilot program aiming to alleviate roadblocks for students of color transitioning between grade levels (high school to college, community college to 4 yr university). The program provides cohorting, financial stipend, 21^st Century Skills training, mentor training, subject matter training, and skills application by leading middle and high school students through the collection of community level climate data to identify actionable solutions. Recruitment and attendance data from KCE3 highlight the persistence of roadblocks for first generation students, students of color, and low-income students from participating in extracurricular activities even in the presence of a financial stipend. We observed that there were different causes for absences during academic and summer programming. Academic year absences were dominated by family care responsibilities (47%) while summer was dominated by summer school/work (42%). Scheduling during the academic year was based on participant schedules, but summer scheduling was dictated by the schedules of pre-college students, which led to increased absences. Other absences were caused by car trouble, and illness/medical appointments. While stipends increase the capacity for students to participate in this type of programming, our data reinforces that money alone cannot alleviate roadblocks and more individualized solutions are required.