Wisconsin is expected to receive at least $219 million over the next decade from a multistate settlement with Meta, and advocates in Milwaukee are already pushing to make sure a chunk of that money keeps neighborhood after-school programs from going dark. The settlement stems from claims that Meta's platforms harmed children's mental health, and the final total could climb as high as $313 million if certain conditions involving other social media companies are met.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, who retained his seat in Tuesday's election, says his office has fielded a steady stream of requests on the subject. According to OnMilwaukee, many of the people who have contacted his office about the money have asked specifically about after-school programs. Kaul has said after-school programs are important, but he has been careful not to promise anything concrete yet, noting that no final allocation decision has been made.
No Final Decision, But A Clear Appetite For Answers
The Wisconsin Department of Justice is still evaluating how to divide the settlement dollars, Kaul said, and after-school funding is just one of many competing priorities. Any money the state doesn't earmark will fall to Kaul's discretion after January, giving advocates only a narrow window to make their case. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in July 2026 that the allocation decision rests with the attorney general, and settlement funds must target at least half toward youth mental health and social media harms, with after-school programs listed as an allowed use.
Jackie Scott, organizer of the Wisconsin Partnership for Kids, wants $10 million each year from the settlement to go directly to after-school programs like Safe Place, plus 20% of the money each year placed into an endowment for long-term support. Scott has argued that Meta settlement dollars would only start after-school funding in Wisconsin, not finish it, saying the state needs investments at every level of government. She's also pointed to a simple window of vulnerability: after-school programs can fill the hours between 3 and 6 p.m. by connecting kids in person with peers and trusted adults, as the station's report notes.
A Milwaukee Program Running On Fumes
In Wisconsin, programs like the Safe Place at Jackson School have no dedicated state funding at all. The program, run by Neu-Life Community Development, operates at Gwen T. Jackson School in Milwaukee and connects children to a Milwaukee County social worker when trauma hits, with Neu-Life also linking families to partner organizations for clinical mental health care at two other sites. Neu-Life's after-school programs rely on Wisconsin Shares and grants as their main funding sources, per the same account.
Jody Rhodes of Neu-Life has said the organization became more proactive about offering support and resources eight or nine years ago, and that the goal is to help as many students as possible with limited money. Serving every child who needs it, Rhodes has said, requires constant effort.
Boys & Girls Clubs Nearly Shut Down Half Its Sites
The fragility of after-school funding was on stark display last year. Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, which operates 42 Community Learning Centers, was weeks away from closing more than half its school-based after-school sites in the summer of 2025, according to Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. The club's board had approved a plan to shrink to fewer than half its school-based sites before the doors stayed open, after the federal government released overdue Community Learning Center funds on July 21, 2025 — 20 days after they were due.
At their peak, the club's Milwaukee Public Schools-based after-school programs collected $1.2 million a year. That funding picture has only grown shakier since: the club received a 14% funding cut in 2026 after roughly 15 years of flat funding. Separately, nearly 100 after-school programs in MPS schools received Child Care Counts funding, a federal pandemic relief program that helped sites retain staff, serve more children and stay open. That federal money ran out in 2025, and the state-funded payments that followed it ended in June 2026.
Why Advocates Say The Stakes Go Beyond Budgets
Behind the funding fight is a broader shift researchers have tracked for years. The share of Wisconsin high school students who feel they belong at school fell from 73.7% in 2013 to 53.6% in 2023, according to the state's 2025 annual report cited by OnMilwaukee. That same report found fewer than half of girls, Hispanic, Black, lesbian, gay and bisexual students feel they belong at school, and it links extracurricular activities to less depression and anxiety along with a basic sense of belonging for kids.
What Other States Have Done With Similar Windfalls
Wisconsin isn't the first state to weigh steering settlement-style money toward after-school programs. Michigan's after-school grant has grown from $10 million in 2021 to $135 million for the 2026-27 fiscal year, with schools, churches and community groups — including YMCAs and Boys & Girls Clubs — all eligible to apply. Even that scale hasn't kept pace with need: in 2025, Michigan programs requested $123 million while only $57 million was available. Stephanie Van Koevering, who leads the Michigan Afterschool Partnership as director of public affairs, has said each year's funding becomes the baseline for the next funding campaign.
Idaho offers a smaller-scale model. The state directs a portion of tobacco settlement dollars into its Millennium Fund, and for the past two years lawmakers have steered some of that money into after-school grants through a program called Beyond the Bell, which received about $1.5 million in its first year. Idaho lawmakers appropriated another $1.5 million for after-school programs for fiscal year 2027 through House Bill 942 in 2026, according to Afterschool Alliance. But Idaho lawmakers decide anew each year how Millennium Fund money gets spent, and that funding can be withdrawn at their discretion, according to Anna Almerico, who wants Idaho to add a dedicated after-school funding line to the state budget instead of relying on an annual vote.
Whether Wisconsin follows Michigan's growth curve or Idaho's more precarious year-to-year model remains an open question. For now, advocates like Scott are simply hoping that when Kaul's office finishes weighing its options, after-school programs come away with more than a mention on the list of allowed uses.
