Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Council member expresses concerns about middle school students and juvenile justice system
2:19:02
·
77 sec
Council Member Althea V. Stevens raises serious concerns about middle school students, particularly in relation to the juvenile justice system and the effectiveness of current summer programs.
- She notes that over 300 young people, mostly between 14 and 16, are currently in Juvenile Justice Detention Centers, with a rising number of felony charges.
- Stevens points out that attendance in Summer Rising and SYEP (Summer Youth Employment Program) is low among this demographic.
- She emphasizes the need to focus on this population of students who are at risk of entering the juvenile justice system and calls for programs that better fit their needs and interests.
Althea V. Stevens
2:19:02
And based on this analysis, are you and DYC looking to change programming models for middle school students, why or why not, and I just even wanna preface this a little bit more around now that I have oversight over ACS and looking at the numbers in the Juvenile Justice Descension Center, we're over 300 currently of young people and mostly between the ages of 14 and 16, and there's a rising number of felony charges, and then we're seeing that the attendance in summarizing also with SYEP, they are doing project based learning, which a lot of them have been complaining about, and they get $700 for the summer, so we are they're not going to SYEP, they're not going to Summer Rising, I'm just trying to get a better understanding as we're moving into the summer, what are we doing for middle school?
2:19:51
I know this council spends a lot of time talking about three ks and pre k, but no one is talking about this population of students who are going into the juvenile justice system and really thinking about how are we targeting and going after them in a real way, and again summarizing SYP and all these things, are failing this population of kids.
2:20:13
So I'm just wanting to hear how are we changing this program to fit what they want and not what we think they need.