Arlington’s proposed FY 2026 budget continues after-school programs kicked off last year aimed at curbing substance abuse among local teens.
Data shows that Arlington overdoses did, indeed, decline last year among juveniles and in the general population. However, it’s somewhat unclear how much of a role the new Arlington Public Schools programming played in this.
More support for after-school programs was added to last year’s budget following a significant push from organizations like Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE).
The Arlington County Board allocated $2 million in one-time funding for a pilot program to create more after-school support, in addition to $0.9 million in new ongoing funding to support staffing at teen-focused programs.
The new proposed budget notes that the programs are aimed at addressing substance abuse and mental health crises among Arlington teens. The county has seen some improvement in both non-fatal and fatal overdoses, according to the report.
“Notably, the number of overdoses has declined over the last two years (2024 year-end AARI report),” the document says, “indicating the need to continue with a mix of intervention, prevention and education approaches.”
The Arlington Addiction Recovery Initiative reported that drug overdoses declined from 2023 to 2024 by 27%, from 73 down to 53. Fatal overdoses decreased by 55%, from 22 to 10.
Those numbers parallel a nationwide trend in drug overdose deaths, which decreased by about 24% between September 2023 and September 2024.
An Arlington County dashboard that tracks juvenile opioid incidents shows a decline from 11 to 2 juvenile opioid overdoses between 2023 and 2024. Fatal juvenile overdoses, meanwhile, dropped from 2 to 0.
It’s unclear how many of these incidents involved APS students. The school system doesn’t separately track overdose figures or have data on incidents that happen on school property, APS spokesperson Frank Bellavia told ARLnow.
The $2 million in one-time funding during last year’s budget cycle was meant to support multi-year pilots of after-school programs. According to the proposed budget, an estimated $0.5 million was spent this year with an estimated $0.7 million to be spent in FY 2026.
Bellavia said better outreach has helped attendance at the sponsored programs steadily increase.
“Working closely with the county, there has been a revamped communications approach for teen programming and services, including a new comprehensive website and regular pop-ups and face-to-face engagement at schools with teens,” Bellavia said. “This engagement has helped inform some of the programming pilots, particularly as teens have expressed interest in work and college readiness assistance.”
According to the budget draft, that funding has been spent on the following.
- Kenmore After School ($140,000) — a 3-day per week program with steadily increasing attendance at Kenmore Middle School.
- Wakefield Programming (included in Kenmore After School budget) — a one-day-per-week program that began early in 2025. The program includes events like a 200-attendee Game Day event ahead of a basketball game.
- Future Ready Workshop ($28,000) — an after-school program providing career exploration and job readiness/skills for Wakefield students, started in January.
- Arlington Mill teen program expansion: $150,000
- Gunston and TJ teen program expansion: $154,000
- Teen after-school life skills: $105,000
- College visit program: $50,000
Approximately $0.8 million is left for future allocation, according to the budget draft.
That could be spent on continuing programs into FY 2027 or creating new programs, though the draft notes that both the county and APS give “careful thought … before starting programs that might be unable to continue.”
Bellavia said the plan is to “utilize these funds over multiple years as opposed to spending it all this school year and then not being able to continue any of the work.”
The county budget is currently making its way through work sessions with another public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 25. Final budget adoption is scheduled for Wednesday, April 9.
