Joseph asks about Exalt expansion and school reentry
Joseph asks about the Exalt expansion and reentry coordination with New York City Public Schools. Popper says Exalt added $400,000 for 20 slots per year, DOE court liaisons are returning, and transition coaches are planned; Joseph raises a student who took two years to return to school and describes a continuum-of-care gap.
In September, you announced Promise Expand Education Employment Opportunity.
What specifically is new and what is the budget and when does it start?
That was part of the announcement.
That was MopJ.
Yeah, so that was an alternative to incarceration and detention program that we were expanding called Exalt.
And that program we added an additional $400,000 to to cover an additional 20 slots per year.
And so that's a program that pairs young people with very intensive case management as they're getting out of detention.
Make sure that they have support in their educational needs, and most importantly, connecting them with paid internships and career pipeline assistance.
And those who have to return to school, how do you work with New York City Public Schools for reentry?
What does that look like?
Yeah, so we're actually bringing back our Department of Education court liaisons to make sure that they're in every court so that individuals who have court cases going,
the court has the information they need to understand where they are in their school process and the attorneys can work with.
The attorneys and the families can work with Department of Education as well to navigate the, you know, does there need to be a safety transfer?
Does there need to be a different school that they're going back to?
And then we're working closely with the Department of Education as well on transition coaches for that transition back from detention as well.
I always talk about this one student that was caught up in the system.
Took them two years to get back to school.
Talk to me about that.
Two years.
You have a young person who was brought up on gun charges, who is a D75 student.
It took them two years for New York City Public School.
Where's the continuum of care when they leave your system?
Where's the continuum of care?
There's a big black hole.
Y'all just drop the kids, and there's no continuation.
And then they get caught up again, and we're like, oh, my God, they're back.
But there was never any support when they left your system to support them in carry.
Yes, and we're certainly in conversation with the Department of Education about that, and most importantly, bringing transitional care inside the facilities, so we're increasing our investment in transitional care inside,
so that every young person has a warm handoff, and that includes with the Department of Education, and making sure that there is someone who knows their educational situation when they are inside, what they want to see happen next,
and where they want to be headed educationally when they get out so that they can be coordinating with the Department of Education before they leave the facility.
So that can be teed up for them.
How long does it take for you to connect with their home school that they came from if they are returning back to that school?
How long does it take?
I can follow up with our providers and see how long they need to connect with DOE.
But that's also a relationship we're working on building.