Youth Education Specialist

Youth Education Specialist

The selected candidate will be offered a salary between $44,545.00 - $51,227.00 The Administration for Children's Services (ACS) protects and promotes the safety and well-being of children and families through child welfare and juvenile justice services and community supports. ACS manages community-based supports and foster care services, and provides subsidized child care vouchers. ACS child protection staff respond to allegations of child maltreatment.

In juvenile justice, ACS oversees detention, placement and programs for youth in the community. ACS' Division of Youth & Family Justice (DYFJ) is responsible for oversight and management of secure and non-secure detention services for juveniles awaiting disposition in family and supreme courts, as well as a network of community-based delinquency prevention, alternative to detention, and alternative to placement programs for youth involved in, or at risk for involvement in, the juvenile justice system.

Further, DYFJ oversees a wide network of providers throughout the five boroughs that operate placement sites for youth who are adjudicated delinquent and are placed by the New York City Family Court as part of the Close to Home initiative. Life skills, Education and Programs (LEAP) offers education support, workforce development and enrichment programs to youth in secure and non-secure facilities in DYFJ.

LEAP is focused on building relationships among staff and using our collective resources to provide comprehensive programs and activities. LEAP ensures that youth served by DYFJ (from detention to placement) receive social and educational services throughout their involvement with our system by overseeing an array of programming and services for court involved youth, developing innovative programming and services for youth and families, working together with stakeholders to identify trends, track data, and implement effective training and staff development around specific programmatic issues.

The Youth Education Specialist will be responsible for working collaboratively with the NYC Department of Education and DYFJ Detention Units to improve school attendance, to assess individual youth needs as it relates to their academic goals, and to support day-to-day educational programming for youth remanded to and/or placed in the care and/or custody of ACS within an assigned secure detention facility.

The scope includes but not limited to:

• Collaborate with the NYC Department of Education to develop an understanding of individual youth needs as it relates to their academic path, goals and areas for support, and in support of school attendance and engagement and education-related initiatives.
• Provide daily targeted coaching and support to youth, including talking with youth in their housing units to encourage school attendance and school engagement and mitigate concerns.
• Support learning in the classroom and through the facility by assisting students with academic assignments, including homework where practicable.
• Monitor and track facility-wide school attendance, and maintain records and logs related to school attendance and engagement.
• Work with youth and DYFJ Programs and Group Services to develop strategies in support of their daily school attendance and academic engagement, including youth participation in school time and out-of-school time programming including tutoring, college access, workforce development, after school support and counseling.
• Support family engagement by participating in Family Days and Family Team Conferences to provide academic updates.
• Attend meetings of the milieu to report out on education-related considerations.
• Provide reports to Facility and Division leadership regarding progress toward achieving the educational goals established by ACS and the DOE, including attendance tracking, trends, and outcomes data.

Special

Note:

Candidate must be willing to work in ACS-operated detention facilities to support implementation of education programming and school engagement for all youth in Secure Detention and participate in educational programming during non-school days.

Qualification…