Effects of a Facilitated Fee Waiver Program on Participation in Youth Sports Programs

Authors

  • Marc Berk Project HOPE
  • Lauren McGivern Moon

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2016-V34-I3-6434

Keywords:

Fee waivers, sports participation, youth sports

Abstract

Registration fees can be an economic barrier to participation in public youth sports programs. While some programs offer to waive the registration fee, many do not, and those that do require that parents provide income documentation during the registration process in order to obtain the waiver. This requirement may discourage waiver applications that, in turn, may reduce participation by low-income children. This article describes the results of a demonstration program that allowed parents to obtain a youth sports programs registration fee waiver through a simple request, without demonstrating need. The demonstration found that a “facilitated waiver program” had a dramatic effect on waiver applications; a twelvefold increase was observed. Waiver applications increased the most among children attending schools in low-income neighborhoods. Those who requested waivers had strong attendance records at games and practices in the programs, and parental support was also high. Despite the benefits of facilitated waivers, however, their use alone is not sufficient to overcome the range of economic barriers to participation in youth sports programs.

Author Biography

Marc Berk, Project HOPE

Marc  Berk is a health policy reseacher and contributing Editor at Health Affairs Jounal.  His primary area of experise is in access to services. He is also a survey methodologist and has published extensively in both health policy and survey methods journals. He has been a youth baseball coach for over 20 years.

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Published

2016-08-10

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 3 (2016): Special Issue–Healthy Parks, Healthy People Part II​

Section

Programs That Work

License

Sagamore Publishing LLC (hereinafter the “Copyright Owner”)

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