Add It to Your Toolbox: BackOnTrackDC.org!

Back in October of 2014, DCAYA was thrilled to support the creation of the District’s first DC Youth ReEngagement Center, an initiative of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), which  provides educationally disengaged youth a one-stop location for the assessment of education status, referral to one or more school completion options, and support to re-enroll and stay enrolled. Since its opening two years ago, the REC has enrolled over 400 youth in educational placements and has supported 30 students through the attainment of a high school diploma.  Now, the REC is seeking to scale the success of their brick-and-mortar center with the launch of BackOnTrackDC.org.

DCAYA’s Budget Updates Part II: Expanded Learning & Youth Homelessness

The final vote by the Council occurred yesterday, and the District’s FY17 budget now goes to Mayor Bowser. Today we continue to reflect on the work of our members and partners throughout this year’s advocacy season, and provide an update on successes for youth, families and children within the FY17 budget. Last week’s blog focused on Youth Workforce Development and Disconnected Youth, and we continue this week with a look at Expanded Learning and Youth Homelessness.

Expanded Learning

A Path Forward for Funding Afterschool and Summer Learning

After the mayor proposed $4.9 million to the DC Trust for community-based afterschool and summer programming in FY17, our initial ask was to double that investment in order to serve up to four times as many children and youth in need of quality expanded learning opportunities. While we were optimistic about the strength of the proposed amount compared to recent years, it was not enough to reverse a downward trend for out-of-school time programming we have seen each year in the District since 2010.

While we will continue to advocate for scaled-up, multi-year funding beginning in FY18, the advocacy priority for FY17 quickly shifted with the announced dissolution of the DC Trust on April 26. Since then, DCAYA and our community-based partners have worked hard to preserve the $4.9 million intended for expanded learning programs. Our coalition has held more than a dozen meetings with members of DC Council and their staff, as well as the Deputy Mayors for Education and Health and Human Services, to build support among policy makers for an established, nonprofit intermediary with youth development expertise to administer out-of-school time (OST) funding in FY17. We continue to be an active partner in this effort, as Deputy Mayor Brenda Donald presents this recommendation to Mayor Bowser.

We’d like to thank the Deputy Mayors and members of Council, as well as all of our expanded learning partners (simply too many to list here) who stepped up to provide resources and insight in the wake of the Trust’s collapse. Most especially, we’re grateful to those members who met with policy makers and offered public testimony to advocate for the preservation of out-of-school time funding. We'd like to give a special shout out of thanks to Fair Chance and Gretchen Van der Veer for helping coordinate our members and Fair Chance partners to do a final round of walk arounds with DC Council on the importance of out of school time programming.

Sustaining 21st Century Community Learning Centers

Earlier this year, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) announced that due to internal efforts to streamline grant making processes and decreased federal funds, there would be no new competition for the federal 21st Century Community Learning Center (CLC) grant program in the 2016-2017 school year. This action immediately affected three community-based OST providers who all stood to lose approximately $995,413 in the coming school year. The disruption of these services, which have all demonstrated quality programming and remarkable outcomes for students, would have caused significant ramifications next year for up to 1,000 at-risk students and undermined years of investments.

Recognizing that families, youth and children deserve more than a haphazard and inconsistent delivery of these key critical services, DCAYA and these three partners launched a targeted advocacy effort to find support and funding. These efforts paid off with Council identifying $800,000 to sustain 21st Century CLC’s in FY17. We’d like to thank these organizations and their families for rallying to support the students, as well as Superintendent Hanseul Kang and everyone at OSSE for their support in working toward a solution, and Councilmembers David Grosso, Brianne Nadeau and Charles Allen for their outspoken support for sustaining this important and life-changing funding stream.

Youth Homelessness

Building Capacity for a Youth-Friendly System

This year, DCAYA advocated to an additional investment of $800,000 to create more transitional housing and independent living options for youth experiencing homelessness. While the mayor’s proposed budget included significantly more funding for crisis support and prevention and diversion services, which we had advocated for and certainly applaud, more funding for meaningful housing interventions will be needed in future years if we are to meet the intent of the 2014 End Youth Homelessness Amendment Act and make homelessness among unaccompanied minors and transition-aged youth rare, brief and non-recurring by 2020.

DCAYA continues to work in a leadership role with the Interagency Council of Homelessness (ICH) and the ICH Youth Subcommittee, and we are optimistic that with the Fall release of the ICH’s Strategic Plan to End Youth Homelessness, we and our partners will be positioned to make an even stronger ask next budget season. We’d like to thank ICH Executive Director Kristy Greenwalt, DHS Director Laura Zeilinger, and DHS Deputy Administrator for Youth Services Hilary Cairns for their continued leadership and support for scaled-up funding, as well as Kimberly Henderson with Child and Family Services Agency, for her role co-chairing the Youth Subcommittee. We are grateful to our members and partners from Sasha Bruce, Casa Ruby, the Latin American Youth Center, Wanda Alston, Covenant House and the DC Center for the LGBT Community for their leadership, advocacy partnerships and public testimonies.

Dignified Housing for Homeless Children & Families

In February, the mayor made good on her promise to voters to deliver a plan to close D.C. General and move homeless families into safe and dignified housing throughout the District, and the plan was met both with intense support and praise, and resistance and criticism. The months that followed saw some of this teased out as policy makers, advocates, and members of the community worked toward a middle ground.  We are pleased that Council has since passed a revised plan that calls for the use of government-owned properties in Wards 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8, and the purchase (instead of leasing) of the sites in Wards 1 and 4. These revisions effectively respond to resident concerns about cost while maintaining the overall intent of the plan. We believe that the housing these families will receive, along with improved access to local amenities and on-site case management services, will have life-changing results for their children well worth this effort and its capital expenditures.

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

I Would Wonk 500 Miles (Just to Share the WIOA State Plan with You)

Today’s blog will focus on the youth-specific provisions of the State Plan. We hope to be a resource as you develop your feedback and recommendations before the Plan is finalized and sent to DOL. For details on how to engage in State Plan Public Engagement, skip to the end!

Two weeks ago, Mayor Bowser and her workforce team released their draft of the District’s WIOA State Plan for comments before the Plan is sent to the Department of Labor (DOL) for approval by April 1st. Beyond demonstrating the District’s plans to comply with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to the Feds, the State Plan also sets the course to better align workforce stakeholders and programs to create a comprehensive system of workforce development.

In and of itself, WIOA established some significant changes for Title I Youth stakeholders, including:

• Requires that at least 75% of youth formula funds are spent on serving out-of-school youth (up from 30% under WIA, though the District had been spending about 65% of funding on out-of school youth as of 2014[1])
• Expands in-school youth eligibility to include low-income youth (14-21) who are English language learners and those who have a disability.
• Requires that at least 20% of youth formula funds be spent on paid and unpaid work experiences that incorporate academic and occupational education.

Wonk This Way: Investing in DC's Data Capacity

Throughout the Performance & Budget Oversight season, DC Alliance of Youth Advocates will post captivating, moving, and/or educational testimonies to help keep you in the advocacy loop. This week we're bringing you our Performance Oversight testimony on OSSE from our own Senior Policy Analyst, Joseph Gavrilovich.

Watch full DC Council hearings here: http://dccouncil.us/videos/archive/.  

Much of our daily work at DCAYA is grounded in OSSE’s rich data capacity. In the past several years, their Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (better known as the SLED database) has been a critical tool in transforming the District’s approach to decision-making in education.

As you are all aware, for the past four years and up to this point, SLED has relied on a federal grant for $1.3 million per year. That funding is set to expire, and there are significant performance risks to consider if there isn’t consistent local funding to replace it. This was forecast in testimony to this committee last year too, and we’re at a point again to make a decision about whether to invest further. We at DCAYA are concerned that some capabilities may be hindered or halted if funding isn’t held at the present level.

Leaving "No Child Left Behind" Behind

Last week, the House passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (S.1177) by a vote of 369 to 64. This week, the Senate followed suit and passed the bill by a 85-12 vote. Once it is signed into law by the President, this bill will replace the 14 year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 through FY 2020.

The compromise legislation, drawn up in conference from both the House and Senate versions, shows promise of final enactment thanks to bipartisan provisions addressing the key goals of both Republicans and Democrats. The bill appeals to Republicans for its limitations on the role of the federal government and to Democrats for its efforts to protect low-income and minority students. At a time when all things political feel divisive, efforts to collaborate and compromise are refreshing.

Congress approves rewrite of No Child Left Behind via @ajc https://t.co/Oo17PUOiqI #NCLB

— Youth Today (@YouthToday) December 9, 2015

So what does this mean for the state of education nationally; and how will this affect the education landscape of the District? 

Making Strides Towards Summer Work Accessibility

This week, we'd like to highlight a promising new pilot that was conducted this summer as part of the Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program. Through an innovative partnership between RSA, DOES, the Secondary Transition CoP, OSSE, DCPS, and select public charter schools, the first Summer Youth Employment Institute (SYEI) was formed to provide individualized supports and services for youth with disabilities to ensure a meaningful work experience in DC’s SYEP. 

We're excited by the success of this year's SYEI, and look forward to see this model of specialized support for under-served populations continued and replicated within SYEP to maximize meaningful summer work experiences for the  program's 18,000 participants. Read below for more insight into this innovative approach from our friends at SchoolTalk, who conducted this summer's SYEI!

Pilot Background

Working during high school has been found to contribute to positive youth development by increasing career awareness and employment skills, as well as the self-determination capacity necessary for all students to experience long-term, postsecondary success. Unfortunately, for youth with disabilities, especially those with more significant disabilities, accessing meaningful paid work experiences represents a major challenge.

The DC Secondary Transition Community of Practice (CoP), a collaborative group focused on improving postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities in the District of Columbia, recognizes that many DC youth with disabilities face significant barriers to employment, including summer employment. In response to this issue, DC’s Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) and Department of Employment Services (DOES), with support from the Secondary Transition CoP, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), and select public charter schools, stepped up to a pilot program designed to provide the supports necessary for youth with disabilities to be successful in the DOES 2015 Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). 

Program Description

Through an RSA contract with SchoolTalk, Inc., The DC Summer Youth Employment Institute (SYEI) pilot provided 22 youth from several DCPS and charter schools with the individualized supports and services they needed in order to be successful in DC’s SYEP.

Participating youth began the summer with a weeklong employment preparation boot camp where they engaged in hands-on learning to help them begin to build the self-awareness and soft skills necessary for successful summer employment.

During the six weeks of SYEP, the youth worked at job sites across the city where they and their employers received extensive supports from RSA and SchoolTalk case managers. RSA provided individualized supports and services, including job coaches and assistive technology, while SchoolTalk case managers checked-in regularly with the youth, their employers, and their families, in order to help them problem solve any issues that arose in relationship to the work environment, job tasks, and individual supports and services.

At the conclusion of SYEP, the participating youth came back together for a three day closeout session to reflect on their experiences, and to connect their summer work to their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), Individualized Plans for Employment (IPEs), and short-term and long-term employment goals.

Impact on Youth

All of the youth experienced increases in their independence, confidence, knowledge and skills related to work and the work environment. Youth demonstrated their growth through the documentation and discussion of their individual employment strengths, preferences, interests, and areas of need, as well as through the development of clear and realistic short- and long-term career goals. Twenty-one of the 22 program participants completed the SYEP portion of the project, and participated in closeout activities.

Three participating youth were also selected to work as youth leaders.  They supported the staff and their peers throughout the course of the pilot program.  Their primary responsibilities included training their peers and staff on assistive technology, helping their peers problem-solve any issues, interviewing their peers for a video project, helping the staff to design and facilitate activities during the close out, supporting their peers in developing presentations about their experiences, and developing presentations for their peers and employers about disability awareness and disclosure. 

Next Steps

Implementation of the SYEI pilot program represents an important step in working towards providing full access to meaningful, summer work experiences for all DC youth with disabilities. RSA and DOES are hoping to expand the program to support at least 50 youth with disabilities during the summer of 2016. The program will continue to identify and work toward eradicating challenges related to youth disability employment including transportation issues, the securing of appropriate and timely workplace accommodations and supports, employer disability awareness, the setting of high expectations, and accessibility to the DC SYEP application and youth portal.

We'd like to thank the partners involved in this year's Summer Youth Employment Initiative for their commitment to ensuring meaningful summer experiences for all District youth, and for their contribution to this blog:

RSA, DOES, the Secondary Transition CoP, OSSE, DCPS, PSCB, and SchoolTalk

An Update: The Final Budget Breakdown

The final Council budget vote was June 10th. As we suspected, a number of major wins were achieved this year. Here is the final break down, and some major thanks to everyone that made it happen! 

Afterschool

DC Trust: The Committee on Health and Human Services, which oversees the Trust, committed an additional $2 million to the Trust’s baseline budget. With this additional funding, the DC Trust will be able to fulfill the majority of their grant commitments to afterschool programs. Much of the funding, $1.6 million, was moved over from the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, thanks to Councilmember Mary Cheh. Councilmember Yvette Alexander filled the resulting gap with just over $400,000 through reallocating funding from within two different health agency budgets. Although advocates originally pushed for an additional $2.5 million, the resulting $2 million is a huge win for afterschool programs and speaks to the power of our members and the community speaking up to testify on behalf of their life-changing programs.

DCPS: The Committee on Education did not find the $6.5 million to stop the cuts to DCPS afterschool, which will result in a cut to 25 cluster coordinators within the DCPS Out-of-School Time Office. The committee budget report rationalizes the cut with the following explanation, “DCPS has assured the Committee and school communities that there will be no reduction in service levels to families in FY16.” However, the committee report went on to say “The Committee also encourages DCPS to monitor this situation throughout the summer and utilize reserve funds, if necessary, to fill any gaps to service to families that may arise as a result of funding challenges for CBOs.” In other words, since DCPS insisted there was no need for the money that was cut, the chair of the committee, Councilmember David Grosso, was not in a position to fill that cut. We will continue to work closely with Councilmember Grosso to monitor the situation and offer on-the-ground feedback from CBOs and schools.

Many thanks to the members of the Committee on Human Services, the Committee on Education and the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, for working so collaboratively to make these critical investments. 

Youth Homelessness

Single Youth: Funding for homeless youth services remains stable at $1.3 million by the Committee on Health and Human Services in an effort to properly scale initiatives through data-informed measures. Advocates supported this funding mark and are continuing to collect data on homeless youth with the newly established Coordinated Intake System. Through the collected data, advocates and DC agencies will have a greater understanding on the investments needed to stabilize homeless youth and guide them onto a path of self sufficiency.

Youth-Headed Families: The mayor’s allocation of $40 million to replace DC General through FY17 was confirmed by the Committee on Health and Human Services.

Parenting Minors: The Committee on Transportation and the Environment, under the leadership of Councilmember Cheh, moved $500,000 to the Committee on Health and Human Services to enhance services to minor headed households. As a recent Washington Post article illustrated, homeless minors with children have few housing or service options. The pilot will begin to fill the service gap for homeless, parenting minors who do not experience levels of abuse and neglect that warrants CFSA involvement and cannot access adult shelters because they are under 18.

DCAYA would like to first and foremost thank Mayor Bowser and her entire Administration for their diligence in addressing homelessness in this budget.  We’d also like to thank the Committee on Health and Human Services and the Committee on Transportation for their hard work to find supplemental funds to address the needs of homeless parenting minors.  

Youth Workforce Development

SYEP Evaluation: During a Committee of the Whole legislative session, the Council approved an amendment introduced by Councilmember Elissa Silverman to require DOES to produce and publish basic information on SYEP participants, including long-term employment outcomes and participation levels at various points in the program. The amendment also lays the groundwork for the development of a rigorous SYEP evaluation to determine a baseline of program quality and identify opportunities for effective interventions within program design and delivery. Along with an amendment introduced by Councilmember Jack Evans to cap SYEP enrollment for youth 22-24 at 1,000 slots, an SYEP evaluation will go a long way to ensure that Mayor Bowser’s additional investment in SYEP of $5.2 million will be used effectively to engage youth 14-24 in a quality career exposure and work readiness training experience.

UDC Funding Restored: In a letter to Council outlining revisions to her proposed FY16 budget (called the Errata Letter), Mayor Bowser included the restoration of $3.5 million to the University of the District of Columbia. The mayor also committed to working with the UDC flagship and the community college to ensure that this investment will benefit programs that place DC residents on career pathways.

The focus of the entire Council, but in particular members of the Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs for all they have done to ensure the Summer Youth Employment Program is of the highest quality in years to come. Equal thanks to Mayor Bowser and her entire administration for the thoughtful investment recommendations outlined in the Errata Letter. These investments will go far in preparing our youth for success in the workforce. 

Disconnected Youth

Expansion of Kids Ride Free: At the Committee for Finance and Revenue budget oversight hearing for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Committee Chairman Jack Evans expressed concerns about Mayor Bowser’s expansion of Kids Ride Free to rail. The Committee’s budget report stated that the Committee is “analyzing the funding sources for the School Transit Subsidy program to better understand the administration and distribution of the proposed $7 million for Kids Ride Free”.  After much deliberation: Funding for Kids Ride Free is indeed secure, and the Councilmember will work to ensure the sustainability of the program.


SLED Remains Stable: While the Committee on Education expressed their commitment to the maintenance and continuation of the Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLED), the needed $1.36 million was not secured to fill the gap left by an expiring federal grant. However, the Committee and DCAYA received assurances from OSSE that a reduction in personnel-related funds will be absorbed internally through efficiency and prioritization and SLED will not suffer as a result. DCAYA will continue to monitor SLED’s operation, but we are confident in OSSE's commitment to maintain the system.

The commitment of the Committee for Finance and Revenue and WMATA to ease student access to school was fantastic.  Equally important, we thank the Bowser Administration, OSSE and the Committee on Education for their work to ensure that SLED remains a strong and valuable resource. 

Finally, we’d like to thank the children, youth, and member organizations who put tons of time and energy into the advocacy work for this budget. Your input into our advocacy agenda is, as always, priceless. Your willingness to mobilize and devote hours to testifying, attending meetings, writing letters and making calls is what gives the DCAYA community its strength and its power.  Thank you. 

Coordinated Entry: Boot Camp and 100-Day Challenge

This week homeless youth advocates went to boot camp.  There wasn’t a lot of yelling and push-ups, but there was sweat-inducing policy planning and some ice breakers that got a little intense.  

On Monday and Tuesday, along with the Interagency Council on Homelessness and Community Solutions, DCAYA co-hosted a DC policy boot camp on coordinated intake and referrals for homeless youth.  Participants came from Office of State Superintendent of Education, DC Public Schools, Department of Behavioral Health, Department of Human Services, Children and Family Services Agency, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, The Community Partnership, Latin American Youth Center, Sasha Bruce Youthbuild, Wanda Alston House, and Covenant House.  Together, they mapped out a working plan to build a District-wide, coordinated entry system for unaccompanied homeless youth. 

Coordinated entry is a system where a homeless youth can show up at any “front door” government agency or community-based organization, be assessed by a standardized assessment tool, and then be referred in a standardized way to best-fit programs.  It sounds simple, but it is actually really difficult to get all the pieces in place to make this process work.  

Think about it, dozens of government agencies and community-based organizations, each with their own requirements and missions, have to come together to select and hone a standardized assessment tool.  They have to change their current referral protocols and habits to a semi-standardized referral protocol based off the chosen assessment tool.  They have to create and maintain a living database that shows available housing slots and service slots. Then they have to figure out what happens when a youth is assessed and referred, but there are not enough services for them.  And those are just a few of the challenges.

That’s why the boot camp model doesn’t end after the two-day planning period.  Now starts the 100-day challenge to implement the work plan.  DCAYA and its fellow participants have only 100 days to make coordinated entry happen. This is a very rapid timeline, meant to keep the momentum going to bust through the obstacles that have kept coordinated entry from happening in the past.

This 100-challenge is nationally historic.  While this model has been very successful in implementing coordinated entry for adults, this is the very first time it will be attempted for unaccompanied homeless youth.  The unaccompanied homeless youth system presents more challenges than the adult side: stricter privacy laws, mandatory reporting laws, working with the 18-24 age group that is often mis-resourced, etc.  But we know DC is ready for this challenge.  

DCAYA has been chosen as the lead organization for this challenge.  We are slightly daunted by the massive amount of work that we are facing over the next 100 days, but we know it is worth it.  It will be incredibly rewarding to collaborate with hard-working, creative, compassionate people from government agencies and community-based organizations. Our youth deserve a coordinated entry system when they come to us for help, and we are going to make it happen.

Katie Dunn is the youth homelessness and expanded learning policy analyst for DCAYA.  She is listening to Rocky pump-up music to get through this 100-day challenge.

A Re-Engagement Center On the Horizon for DC Youth

Excitingly, Washington DC is on the verge of seizing an opportunity to re-engage its 7,000 school dropouts in education - joining some 15 other cities in this pursuit. The innovative D.C. Re-Engagement Center, which has been in the planning stages for the last several months, is slated to fully open in the fall of 2014.

Re-Engagement Centers fill a critical niche for disconnected youth ages 16-24 by providing a one-stop location for assessment of education status, referral to one or more school completion options, and support to re-enroll and stay enrolled. Centers also conduct outreach to find the young people who need opportunities to finish high school and move on with their education. The National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families has documented that centers in 13 cities supported re-enrollment of more than 6,000 youth and young adults over the past two school years. 73% of these youth stayed with their new school placement for at least a year or graduated with a credential.

The formula for launching a successful center is both straightforward and complex. The latter, in part because public policy concentrates on ensuring the success of students who remain in school, and only rarely focuses on the 25%+ who do not.

For a citywide Re-Engagement Center, the straightforward portion of the formula involves:

• Leadership and support from the top, from mayors, superintendents, foundation executives, and leaders of workforce agencies and community colleges, as well as a clearly designated lead implementation agency;
• Newly identified or re-programmed resources, often stemming from the per-pupil funds districts recoup once students re-enroll;
• A youth-friendly physical or virtual portal – for outreach to known dropouts, and to welcome dropouts looking for options;
•  Staff with an orientation toward youth development, capable of building strong relationships with youth who have the most updated information at their fingertips about the range of referral options for education and non-academic services for disengaged youth; and
•  A range of alternative school options at which former dropouts can complete their education and get launched toward next steps in schooling and employment.

The District is following the success formula to an “R” (for re-engagement). The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) commissioned a feasibility study to draw upon promising national practices and to situate plans in the local context. The Office of the State Superintendent for Education (OSSE) has stepped forward to serve as the lead agency. The Department of Employment Services (DOES) identified space for an initial physical hub location in its headquarters building in one of the highest-need neighborhoods in the city – thus co-locating education and workforce services. Together, DME, OSSE, and DOES are on their way to a well-functioning partnership. In addition, a working group of the Raise DC partnership that focuses on this population is actively exploring innovative virtual options to make it easy for tech-savvy dropouts to connect with re-engagement counselors and school options.

With so many pieces coming into place for scaled-up and purposeful re-engagement efforts in D.C., the future is bright indeed. District residents, youth advocates, and service providers can lend a hand to the project partners by sending young people to the Center once it opens. Innovators and education entrepreneurs can help tackle the forthcoming need for more high-quality school completion options, as current options will prove insufficient when re-engagement takes off.

And -- in a capital city where messaging is sometimes paramount -- launching the DC Re-Engagement Center will send a positive public message about the importance the District places on re-engagement. At the policy and institutional level, establishing a center represents a firm embrace of an “all students achieve” agenda, and affords an opportunity to maximize the return on investments made prior to the time that students dropped out.





Andrew Moore is the Senior Fellow at the National League of Cities' Institute for Youth, Education, and Families. The YEF Institute helps municipal leaders take action on behalf of the children, youth, and families in their community. 
  

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

Bringing Youth to the Table

As you may have heard, DC Council published their upcoming Performance Hearing Schedule and the excitement begins February 7th! Performance hearings are an incredibly important part of DC government oversight and operations.  They are a powerful opportunity for the community to give agencies and the Council key feedback on what is working and what can be improved.

Youth program participants bring unique insight to the conversation when given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the programs they access. Since youth interact with a variety of government agencies and services - often in a unique way - their voice in these hearings is critically important. We strongly encourage our members to talk with the youth they serve about the chance to testify in person, submit a written statement, write a personal letter, or even submit a verbal statement on camera so the Councilmembers who oversee key committees can hear their perspective. The youth voice is a vital part of the democratic process.

We’ve taken a few steps to help facilitate this process:

• Below we have a list of the agency performance hearings that are relevant to youth and youth serving organizations. 
• On the dc-aya.org website we offer one-pagers on specific issues, research, and past testimonies to give examples and data that can be used to strengthen a testimony. 
• We are hosting an Advocacy through Storytelling – Brown Bag Lunch at the DC Center for the LGBT Community on February 18th from 12PM – 1:30PM.  We will provide hands-on help for crafting a compelling testimony. We will also walk program providers and youth, step-by-step, through the process of testifying in front of DC Council. (Register Here)

DC Alliance of Youth Advocates is a coalition created to insure that the best programs and practices are offered to our city's young people. By unifying our voice during the performance oversight and budget hearings, we seek to realize our vision of building a truly youth-friendly DC.


Performance Oversight Hearings:

February 10th

Committee on Human Services, Chairperson Jim Graham

Agency: Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation

February 12th

Committee on Human Services, Chairperson Jim Graham

Agency: Child and Family Services Agency

February 13th

Committee on Education, Chairperson David Catania

Agency: DC Public Schools (Public Witnesses Only)

Committee on Transportation & The Environment, Chairperson Kenyan McDuffie

Agency: Department of Parks and Recreation

February 19th

Committee on Education, Chairperson David Catania

Agencies: State Board of Education, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, Public Library System

February 20th

Committee on Human Services, Chairperson Jim Graham

Agency: Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services

February 24th

Committee on Government Operations, Chairperson Kenyan McDuffie

Agencies: Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Executive Office of the Mayor

Committee on Education, Chairperson David Catania

Agency: Office of the State Superintendent of Education

Committee of the Whole, Chairman Phil Mendelson

Agencies: University of the District of Columbia, University of the District of Columbia Community College

February 26th

Committee on Business, Consumer, & Regulatory Affairs

 Agency: Workforce Investment Council

Committee on Human Services, Jim Graham

Agency: Department of Human Services

February 27th

Committee on Education, Chairperson David Catania 

Agency: DC Public Schools (Government Witnesses Only)

 March 6th

 Committee on Education, Chairperson David Catania

 Agencies: DC Public Charter School Board, Public Charter Schools

Maggie Riden is the Executive Director of DC Alliance of Youth Advocates. To read her past performance oversight and budget hearing testimonies please visit www.dc-aya.org/news. Maggie will also be one of the presenters hosting the Advocacy through Storytelling - Brown Bag Lunch. 

 For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

Share Your Shutdown Story

As we embark on the second week of stalemate in federal budget negotiations, organizations that serve the most at-risk children, youth and families are being forced to make difficult decisions. With the District's budget frozen until the shutdown is resolved, critical funding from both federal and local sources have been shut off for community-based organizations. Many have been forced to reduce their programming and services, furlough non-critical staff, or shut their doors entirely. All of this is bad news for the city’s young people.

Take for instance the afterschool provider People Animals Love (PAL) who has served hundreds of youth in the past few years and receives the bulk of its funding from two government sources, the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp (CYITC) and the Office of the State Superintendent for Schools (OSSE). Reimbursements for OSSE-administered programming offered by CYITC and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers are currently on hold. According to PAL’s Executive Director Rene Wallis, “PAL and many other youth-serving organizations are going to have to cope as the federal funds remain frozen. We may lay off workers, reduce our activities, serve fewer kids, and delay our reading interventions – all as the school year is getting seriously underway. Then, once the feds get it together, we have to ramp up again, but the lost time cannot be recovered”.

Another heartbreaking example of the effects of the shutdown is the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC). In an email to constituents yesterday afternoon, Executive Director Lori Kaplan explained that “to ensure the long term health of our programs, on Wednesday, October 9th, the LAYC will reduce services to ESSENTIAL operations only.” Incredibly, many LAYC staff members, despite being furloughed, will serve as volunteers until Congress refunds the government to ensure the stability of service provision for hundreds of young people.

Countless other stories of direct service organizations/entities being affected by the shutdown have come to light in recent days, but this does not necessarily mean that everyone understands the full outcomes of the shutdown. Surely the government workers who were most immediately affected by the closing of their offices in the District deserve public empathy, however, the ripple effects like the non-payment of contract/grant dollars to organizations serving at-risk populations is an issue somewhat less salient. The young people enrolled in most of the types of programming the city offers are in dire need of programming and services. The interruption of these has the potential to set youth back for much longer than the duration of the shutdown. With that in mind, it becomes the responsibility of the non-profit community writ large to make this an issue the general public can digest, and more importantly, act on.

Organizations serving at-risk populations often rely heavily on government grants and contracts, and when these funds suddenly disappear, many cannot bear the financial strain of maintaining full operations. With that in mind, it is more important than ever that individuals from the very communities who will endure the stoppage of services and programming are engaged in creating solutions to this issue.

For that reason we urge DCAYA’s members and allies to spread the word about the full effect of the shutdown and how young people here in the District are bearing a lack of services and supports. Please consider sharing this post with your personal networks and adding in your own story of how the young people you know/serve are being affected by the shutdown.

Congress needs to know how THEIR actions are affecting OUR youth. DCAYA wants to help share your story. Use #DCshutdownstories to tell them how your organization is effected by the furlough. Also, visit Susie Cambria's blog to see how you can take action against the federal shutdown!

To read more about youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

Why You Should Care about the Adequacy Study

As many of our Youth-Friendly DC readers know, this fall is a critical time for education reform in the District. We reported last spring that the Committee on Education was set to create quite a stir with a package of reform bills and this fall we will see the markups of most of those bills. There is also quite a bit going on at the executive level. Perhaps most importantly, the District is set to release the findings of its Adequacy Study which will have major implications for the amount of funding available to the District’s schools in the coming years and could drastically affect the various education reform bills put forth by the Committee on Education.

For those of you who haven’t heard much about the Adequacy Study, it is worth reading up on before its release. According to The Finance Project (who is conducting the study):

DC leaders want to study education "adequacy," in order to set parameters in the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF), so that all schools are assured of having a sufficient amount of funding -- where funding means enough money to provide a set of defined "inputs" in order to accomplish a defined set of educational "outcomes." Based on this definition, the DC Education Adequacy Study will specify relevant standards to measure student performance -- the objective levels of achievement that every student is expected to be able to meet, in addition to other desired student outcomes and input.

In plain language this means that the city wants and needs to know the true cost of educating students at various levels. It’s no secret that education reform has moved at a pace that many people find frustrating and the Adequacy Study is one of many steps being taken to ensure the city achieves the educational outcomes (higher proficiency rates, higher graduation rates) we all want for young people. It is important to remember, however, that the Adequacy Study is supposed to provide recommendations on both the foundation level per pupil and the additional weights assigned to different categories of students, and this goes well beyond educational levels.

Though the base (foundation) cost is of course an incredibly important factor when it comes to the final price tag of the study’s recommendations, the recommendations around what new categories do or do not get created  and the weights assigned to students or schools with high proportions of those students will also have major financial implications for the city. For example students from economically disadvantaged families currently do not receive an additional weight on top of the foundation funding level. The Adequacy Study could recommend that a category and accompanying weight be created to better support these students. For the sake of argument let's say it recommends that economically disadvantaged students receive an additional .50 weight on top of their foundation and educational level funding. That means that an economically disadvantaged 8th grader would bring about $14,300 in funding to whatever school they were enrolled in. However, if the Adequacy Study does not recommend that any new category or weight be created and simply recommends the base funding for all students be raised  that would give all schools more funding regardless of what type of students they enroll.

Clearly, there are hundreds of options to consider with weighting, categories and base funding amounts and the .50 weight was just one example of a recommendation that might be made. Its important to remember though, that as much as we would like to think no price is too high for quality education, the reality is the city only has so much money. While the Council and the Mayor do not have to follow every recommendation of the Adequacy Study, its recommendations will no doubt carry quite a bit of weight in deciding what and who gets more UPSFF dollars.

This reality makes its incredibly important for the youth serving and advocate community to provide input and comments to the Deputy Mayor’s office when the Adequacy Study recommendations are released and made available for public comment. Given that it has taken the city so long to revisit the true cost of educating District residents, it is imperative to ensure that the recommendations of the study are in line with what educators and providers know will best serve their student populations. The study is due to the Deputy Mayor for Education by the end of September, so time to provide feedback is fast approaching.

Anne Abbott is the Policy Analyst at DC Alliance of Youth Advocates. She manages the organizations youth workforce development and educational pathways policy and advocacy work. You can read past education testimonies from her and  members of the DCAYA coalition on the DCAYA website.  

To read more about youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.