Homework Help: Seattle Public Library's Tutoring Program Free for All Students in Need

The Seattle Public Library's (SPL) Homework Help program has returned along with the school year to provide students with after-school homework support at participating branches. Homework Help works with volunteers from the communities in which they serve to provide tutoring free of cost to students in need. 

In Seattle, the average hourly cost for tutoring is $27 per hour, according to Care.com. Since the program's inception, Homework Help has always provided its services free of cost to participating students. 

An article in The Seattle Times that has since been archived said in 1989 that Homework Help first started tutoring students at the Douglass-Truth Library in the Central District as part of a pilot program. Then called the Douglass-Truth Homework Center, Homework Help began as an effort to assist students with completing their homework assignments on time. 

Despite SPL employees originally requesting enough money from the City to establish homework centers at four other libraries, the City granted $39,000 for just one homework center at Douglass-Truth. The following year, in Jan. 1990, Rainier Beach and Southwest Library established homework centers. 

By 1992, the program was referred to as Homework Enrichment Library Project (HELP), and by 1998, five SPL branches, Columbia, Douglass-Truth, Southwest, Lake City, and Rainier Beach, offered homework assistance. 

In 2007, the program got its current name, Homework Help, and by 2019, there were 11 SPL branches offering the program's services.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Homework Help and all other in-person library services closed. In order to continue to assist students with homework, SPL began to offer one-on-one online tutoring sessions in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, a service it continues to offer today. 

"When the pandemic hit, we lost connection with the students. Some of our friends within the city offer tutoring programs that have registration — we didn't have that," said Ayan Adem, school-age success manager for SPL. Adem has been working with Homework Help since 2018, when she switched from being a site library liaison at the Douglass-Truth branch, a position she held since 2015. Because Homework Help is a low-barrier, drop-in-based program, it does not require registration for tutoring sessions, making it hard to keep track of students.

"There was definitely a grieving moment, like, 'How are we going to connect with families?' But because of the efforts, we were able to launch a tutoring program online, virtually through Tutor.com, and were able to push so that families could get academic support," said Adem. 

Shelley Mastalerz was an integral part to getting Homework Help back in-person following lockdown and has been working on it ever since.

"[Before COVID-19,] I was not part of the Homework Help program. I was a teen services librarian at the Central Library before I came into this position. I had known about the Homework Help program and helped promote it within my [previous role,]" she said.

In fall 2021, Mastalerz transitioned from working as a teen services librarian at the Central Library to support the online tutoring program for Homework Help. According to Mastalerz and Adem, Mastalerz was essential to getting the online program up and running and has been working on Homework Help as program manager for three years. 

"We really want to make sure that we're learning together as a community. It's not just the students learning from the tutors. It's the tutors learning from the students. And [we're thinking about] how we can also engage families in that learning," said Mastalerz. 

In 2022, Homework Help returned to provide in-person tutoring on a limited basis by prioritizing branches that serve students furthest from educational and social justice. SPL has since expanded the program, and this fall, nine SPL branches will offer Homework Help to students in need. 

According to Adem and Mastalerz, the program will now provide students with a free snack, something it did not do pre-pandemic. 

"We provide a snack at every location, and [the reason why we do that is] to center the needs of the families, to make sure that our program is impactful," said Adem. "Pre-pandemic, we offered [Homework Help] at 12 locations and we wanted to really think about where we can have the biggest impact. And so we have shifted down to nine to [maximize] impact with youth and families furthest away from justice."

To find a library near you offering Homework Help, please access the SPL website to find a participating branch near you.