Bellaire Local School District educators have a problem with students from lower-income families, and they know it. Good for the school system for promoting a program that ought to help.

State school officials grade Bellaire’s system with an “F” in the “gap closing” category. That is explained as “how well schools are meeting the performance expectations for our most vulnerable students …” Students from low-income households fall into that category.

Bellaire is not alone. Far from it. The overwhelming majority of school systems throughout the United States have not yet cracked the code for bringing lower-income students up to par with their classmates.

On Monday, Bellaire Board of Education members heard an update on a promising strategy. It is after-school programs that can help students with homework and provide the individualized attention that simply is not possible in most classrooms.

After-school programs are being coordinated by the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center, which works with several East Ohio districts. On Monday, Dorothy Vannest and Juli Coe, of the center, outlined what is happening with after-school programs in Bellaire.

About 60 students from the elementary school show up regularly for after-class work there, Vannest reported. About 35 are regular attendees for the middle and high school projects.

Students who stay after school get help with homework, reading intervention and other assistance they need. Coe and Vannest added that they also have been helping to organize events at which parents can come and spend more time with their children.

Only time will tell how effective the after-school initiative is, of course. But there is little, if any, doubt that it will help participating youngsters.

Good for Bellaire school board members for participating in the program, then. Clearly, the school district needs all the help it can get with what some educators refer to as “at-risk” children.