>> good afternoon and welcome to the meeting of city school districts's. i'm the chair of the committee joined by fellow supervisor chris damey. our scol board members here with us are commissioner kim and fewer and mendoza. i want to acknowledge and thank our clerk who is here clerking for us and acknowledge that the great folks at sfgtv are making it possible for the people of san francisco to see their city government at work. and could we call our first item. >> item number one, hearing to consider how we are addressing the needs of students who are being served in the wm system

and the city and county of san francisco. >> thank you. and i want to acknowledge that crisis here as always to represent the school district. today we are continuing our hearings on looking at how various city agencies are addressing the needs of students who are being served by multiple systems within the san francisco unified school district and the city and county of san francisco. we will focus how we partner with the juvenile probation department to make sure our youngsters remain on the right track and adequate support between ours schools and city departments to succeed. i have acknowledged our clerk and chris. today we are joined by the department of youth, children and families, jim, who is a san francisco unified county schools, claudia from san francisco unified school district, support services and

probation chief, bill, the director of our juvenile probation department. our goals are to look at the operational logistical partnerships between the school district, juvenile probation and children, youth and families to ensure we don't lose students between these systems and make sure we are managing and supporting them towards susan looking at the current partnership, are we in a state where it is more reactive and already looking at young people who have to get in trouble in the justice system or are there ways to be more proactive to ensure we are engaging those young people who are at risk. so with that, i think i will start and invite di and n and from d.c.y.f. to start us off here. >> thank you and good afternoon board of supervisors, members.

i would like to start off with saying that we provide many different opportunities and partnerships to be able to address the needs of at-risk youth. this question, we thought it was so broad that we narrow it to a couple of examples that we support in coalition with a couple of city departments. and i would like to start off were stating in 2008, we -- as the department of children, youth and families, department of public health decided to merge our funding streams to better support some of the c.b.o.'s, the strategies to reduce violence. we merged dollars, children's fund, general fund and other dollars all together to support 60 different programs that address alternative education, case management, detention

alternatives, detention bay services diversion and gender women's services. we are talking about 40 different organizations in san francisco that support young people through the ages of 13 through 25 so they have a wrap-aaround approach and don't fall through the cracks. within the disciplines, there are different meetings that occur at the community-base level and systems level. we work with j.p.d. and d.p.h. and meet as joint funders to talk about what are some of the trends going on, what are some of our funding decisions and how we are making sure that the money we are investing is providing the best service. so those are a couple of things at the systems' level that support some of these efforts. now more at the community level, what we try to do with providers is provide a monthly check-in in

order to ensure there is cross communication and ensure there is a strong referral process with some of the young people we are working with and targeting. another example just to be brief, because i know you have more questions you would like to ask us, any other example of where we combine our efforts with j.p.d. and dcyf is with the workforce development strategy. we supported a school partnership model where we work with four different schools to provide not only support on specific four school sites but provide opportunities for employment, people who are coming out of high at risk situations. there are slots to assist young people and the teachers along side teachers, providers, all come to the table either on the performance of a young person or just to simply track some of the issues they might be facing and where the needs are and where

they need the most support. another example within our youth employment efforts is our actually our high risk youth workforce development strategy that specifically targets young people coming out of log cabin ranch and provides job slots and opportunities with five different community-based agencies. we selected five different agencies that can provide anywhere from 10 to 15 slots for young people to get trained on employment -- different aspects of employment and to ensure they complete their g.e.d. or high school diploma through the services and case management of this agency. there are actual specific support. another key initiative, i know you have heard multiple times about and i will mention it once again that really addresses some of the gaps and the needs of young people within our school,

true answery reduction initiative. and i won't explain what we have done in the past, because i know you have heard it multiple times -- >> it would be helpful because we are still -- it would be great to know is a little bit about the overview and a little bit of the status of implementation because those are things we have consistently asked and it is not full throttle out. and if you could share it. i welcome supervisoral yeto pier. >> we are serving over 40 young people. , this program addresses case management services to reduce chronic and habit you'll tru and ncy. and some of the new partners

have been the adult probation department. some of the existing partners that have supported us are the district of attorney's office, department of children, youth and families and existing partner sfusd and the san francisco police department. what we have done is we work on a weekly basis meeting about what are some of the issues going on with this initiative, what is each department actually committing to in order to be able to reduce to of this that is going on with some of the young people inside sfusd. we have had joint meeting on a twice a month basis where we talk about the coordinated aspect of it. what we have done is -- all these departments have come to brainstorm how we can best serve

through a family wraparound approach the families that come in. those are the new things going on with some of the initiative. and i wanted to mention it to you. this is a brand new effort to sharpen some of the services for those young that fall through the cracks or multi systems use. in general, i would like to say claudia is here and so is the chief so that they can also express a little bit about what other initiatives or efforts that we have. i would wrap this segment with stating that we meet on a quarterly basis on general violence prevention efforts and given some of the funding strategies and plended funding, we are meet -- blended funding, we are meeting consistently to ensure we are doing the best work possible. if there are other

recommendations, we would appreciate them. >> we will go through the speakers and have all the presentations and hopefully have questions at that point. jim will present next from sfusd county schools. >> let me explain, the umbrella organization is county schools and then core schools. i will explain a little bit. >> there are people that watch these hearings on-line, could you explain what county schools are. >> county schools in california, actually every state, in california, the county schools are foyer those students, specific county schools we have right here, civic center secondary school and that is for expeled probation and homeless youth. and i was the principal of that for many years and i have moved back to the core schools.

two county schools we have right now are civic center secondary school and larkin street youth services that are serving them. jay cunningham is the principal of that school. court schools are years ago, we decided to separate the county system into those students who are on probation and those students who weren't. there are students at probation at the county schools, but the court schools are purely probation and that is woodside learning center, that is the school inside juvenile hall. the number fluctuates there. it is usually around 90, lower than 100 students. that is a real high school diploma program, special ed, english learning, g.e.d., partnerships with community-based organizations there. that's woodside learning center.

log cabin high school, that is 50 miles south. the students are from the probation department, generally sentenced there for let's say nine months to a year, depends on how they're doing down there. and there is a high school that's there. high school diploma program, g.e.d. and vocational, of late. those are possibly our -- in terms -- i don't want to say risk, some of the most serious students. and those students are deemed to go to a place that needs to be far away for x amount of time. for me permly, one of my favorite schools and service the students who need to be away from the city and get mental health treatment and intensive education. they have added vocational

training of late. there are a lot of different partnerships, city college, san francisco state, the probation department, san francisco conservation corps and urban sprouts are some of the big programs there now. and there is early morning study, g.e.d. program that is next to juvenile hall. not necessarily probation, but most of the students seem to be. i think it's a great program. it's really successful every year. there were 48 students who got their g.e.d. from that program. inside juvenile hall, there are partnerships that are given via grant and they bring out a teacher who is able to do that. the study program has 30 to 40 students at a time and spend three months, six months, however long it takes them to practice for and pass the g.e.d. that is the early morning study

academy. we have been working close with those partners forever. 19 years for me. and i spent last time talking about the collaborative, a nonresidential court school. 80 schools around the u.s. and around the country. that's going very well. and supervisor said earlier, it's interesting that what we are trying with that school -- we are trying to make it an alternative school but don't have to get in trouble to get the services of a school like that. that is our thrust there. i have been working with claudia and partners in the alternative schools and we were looking at how to get alternative schools off the punishment phase for a long time and i think we have done it. that's the county and court schools right now. >> supervisor, what i was hoping

to do is we only have two more speakers and then have a round robin. thank you so much, jim. next, claudia anderson from the san francisco unified school district and director of support services. >> good afternoon members of the select committee. a lot of things are going on within the school district right now but people who aren't familiar with the stupid support services, i want to give you that lay of the land very briefly. it's a very large department and has some subdivisions within it that has a lot of crossover, but distinct areas. one section deals primarily with issues related to health and health broadly defined as physical, social, emotional health, all manner of programs and grants address those issues for students throughout the

school district. another section deals with after-school programming. just about every school in the district now has after-school funding so they can provide youth in after-school hours with a safe place so they aren't out on the streets in harm's way. and they are there to engage in enrichment activities, but increasingly to also engage in credit recovery because if we are trying to prevent students from dropping out, they have to have hope that they can reach the end of the tunnel. many of our students who have become discouraged because of being behind, become discouraged because of being behind, the after-school program has restored hope so they can actually finish. the last section addresses most of the issues related to pupil services kinds of activities.

intervention you have heard about in the past, issues around school safety, issues around disciplinary issues. and i think in every one of these departments right now, we have got some interface going with the city. and looking from a historical place, as jim said, we were in county together, when we would just have conversations dreaming about wraparound services for young people and we were able to cobble some together with community-based organizations who were willing partners, but it was hard to crack the nut of how do we get into the city? we know there are people there and working with the same kids but how do you get into the public department of public health, h.s.a.? and it is beginning to happen on a whole sale basis and each one of these departments, there is funding coming in from the city to support all of the

activities. we have got the city supporting a major initiative around restored justice and practices. so that -- you know, what's going on to help if students become involved in the juvenile justice system. we are just learning how to use acts of wrongdoing as opportunities to teach rather than to punish. we are learning to do that and we think as we get better and stronger at doing that, we will be able to intervene earlier. in terms of other specific programs, the city is helping us to learn how to do what's known as family group conferencing, a city initiative that is going to betraying all of the employees within the pupil services component, how to take a family-systems approach, which we have not had as much

experience as some of our city partners. they have helped up with efforts with the opening of the care program in the bayview and soon the care program that will be in the western addition, which is funded with money from behavioral health, department of public health and there are more interagency meetings happening than i have ever seen before. there is has been an interagency meeting that met covertly for many years. it was started by a man now deceased, and we met in secret because we know we weren't supposed to sometimes share information, but we knew it was essential on behalf of young people. and what we are doing and what was alluded to, we are trying to talk about how a system of care would look like, disrupt the patterns of siloing on behalf of

youth. so with your help and encouragement going to be able to find ways we can do data sharing in an intervention, prevention and early intervention mode rather than after they are in custody and have to figure out, gee, what do we do now. i would like to take questions later, but that's what i would share now. >> and now bill from the juvenile probation department and we will open up the questions. >> good afternoon, supervisors, commissioners. i'm here to assure my perspective on the state of affairs dealing with youth, who not only have fallen through the cracks, but some have fallen off the cliff. and make it their way to juvenile justice center