Although communication between after school programs and regular day schools has been identified by researchers and practitioners as a critical factor associated with successful and sustained after school programs, few studies have been conducted to examine this supposition. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness and congruence of communication between after school programs and regular day schools. Following the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) program objectives and conducting a comprehensive review of literature, a questionnaire containing an 8-item, 5-point Likert scale was developed to measure communication quality between after school programs and regular day schools. The questionnaire was phrased into two versions for after school programs and regular day schools to assess each other. Content validity of the questionnaire was assessed using a panel of 6 experts in after school program administration or measurement and evaluation. A total of 123 programs participated in the survey through assessing communication effectiveness of the regular day schools that program participants attended and also through being assessed on communication effectiveness by the regular day schools. Factor analyses with principal component extraction and varimax rotation were conducted for the two versions of the questionnaire, respectively. Using the criteria of an eigenvalue equal to or greater than 1.0 and a factor loading equal to or greater than .40 without double loading, two identical factor solutions were determined for the two versions of the questionnaire: Facilitation (5 items) and Accessibility (3 items). Both factors displayed good internal consistency, with all of the alpha reliability coefficients being greater than .70. One sample t-tests with Bonferroni adjustment in the alpha level revealed that the mean composite scores for the factors were significantly (p < .05) greater than their respective midpoints, indicating positive mutual evaluations of communication effectiveness by after school programs and regular day schools. Regression analyses were further conducted to examine the congruence between communication effectiveness as assessed by after school programs and regular day schools. The correlation coefficient was .612 for the Facilitation factor and .894 for the Accessibility factor, both of which were statistically significant (p < .05). Findings of this study indicated that communication between after school programs and regular day schools overall was effective. After school programs should continue to develop and implement specific activities that ensure quality communication in order to enhance the accomplishment of program objectives.Keyword(s): administration/mgmt, alternative programming, youth-at-risk