DRIPPING SPRINGS – Members of the Dripping Springs community will see an increase in tuition rates for the school district’s after-school care program.
Dripping Springs ISD offers several services to employees and the community to assist with child care needs beyond the school day operated by the Community Services Department. One of these being Kids Club, which is a large recreational group setting after-school child care program for children who are enrolled in pre-K through the fifth grade in DSISD. The tuition-based program, staffed with school employees, is held at each of the district's elementary campuses; children are able to enjoy structured and supervised snack time, playtime, gym games, playground activities and an occasional movie.
Due to Community Services facing continuous challenges in staffing the programs offered, it has also had to limit enrollment, leading the DSISD Board of Trustees to unanimously vote Feb. 18 to approve an increase in the rates. This follows another rate increase that was approved in March 2024.
“The after-school program, Kids Club, we moved to a lottery system last year because it fills up so quickly and that seemed to work well,” said Assistant Superintendent of Learning & Innovation Karen Kidd. “Now that we are doing the lottery, we are also aligning enrollment for our pre-K program and the after-school programs and we want to open that up on March 3. So, this is pushing us sooner to look at our fees for Community Services and pre-K.”
Capacity for the program is “really limited by our staffing,” said Kidd, as it is a difficult position to fill because it’s three- to three-and-a-half hours per day.
“A lot of our workers in the after-school program are our cafeteria workers, so they work a really long shift in the cafeteria and then, they go help out in Kids Club,” she explained.
For employees, the district has provided a $50/month/child subsidy for the before- and after-school programs. The new rates include an additional $25 monthly increase to the Kids Club community rate and a $5 monthly increase to the employee rate for 2025-26.
According to agenda documents, Community Services also provides child care on student holidays/staff work days — offered to all employees regardless of where their student is enrolled in school. This service’s fee will be increased from $50 per child per day to $60.
Another planned change is to charge a $50 non-refundable registration fee to enroll in the program through a lottery process.
The full list of new rates are below.
District contribution: $50
Employee Tuition August through May: $75
Community Tuition August through May: $275
Registration Fee After-School: $50
With the increase in the rates, Kidd said that DSISD is still comparable to other programs in the area. For example, Eanes ISD has a monthly tuition, for 2025-26, of $210 for employees and $420 for community members
The first month’s tuition — August — for Kids Club would be due by June 1 to ensure a spot.
More information about Kids Club can be found at www.dsisdtx.us/o/dsisd/page/kidsclub. To view the full comparison to other area programs, visit www.dsisdtx.us/page/board-of-trustees-overview for the Feb. 18 DSISD Board of Trustees meeting agenda.
