Education & Behavioral Support Content Specialist-Full Time

The Education & Behavioral Support Content Specialist strengthens program quality, inclusive practices, staff skills, curriculum, and participant engagement across three DYCD-funded COMPASS sites.

Working with Program Directors and frontline staff, the Specialist uses observation, coaching, modeling, training, and technical assistance to support accessible, culturally responsive programming for children and youth with a range of academic, social-emotional, behavioral, developmental, learning, and communication needs.

The role also helps staff improve lesson plans, classroom and group management, positive behavior supports, de-escalation, social-emotional learning, routines, and transitions. This is a program-support role and does not diagnose participants or provide clinical treatment; when additional services are needed, the Specialist works with program leaders, families, school partners, and other appropriate supports.

Program Quality, Instruction, and Inclusive Practice

• Conduct regular site visits and classroom or group observations across assigned DYCD COMPASS sites to assess program quality, participant engagement, staff practice, learning environments, and behavioral or supervision needs.
• Partner with Program Directors to implement high-quality, culturally responsive, inclusive youth-development programming aligned with DYCD content areas, program goals, participant needs, and positive youth-development principles.
• Review lesson plans, activity schedules, instructional materials, and staff practices; provide actionable feedback that strengthens engagement, differentiation, accessibility, instructional quality, and compliance with program-quality standards.
• Monitor participation, belonging, inclusion, and learning outcomes; identify patterns across sites and recommend practical quality-improvement strategies.
• Provide intensive technical assistance when observations, incidents, participant needs, program data, monitoring, or leadership identify an area requiring additional support.

Behavior Support, Inclusion, and Participant Engagement

• Provide in-the-moment coaching, modeling, and technical assistance to staff supporting participants with behavioral, developmental, social-emotional, learning, or communication needs.
• Train and coach staff in positive behavior supports, proactive classroom and group management, co-regulation, de-escalation, trauma-responsive practice, developmentally appropriate redirection, and relationship-based engagement.
• Support the meaningful inclusion of participants with IEPs, disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, communication differences, and other developmental or learning needs.
• Conduct targeted observations; help staff identify antecedents, triggers, environmental factors, transitions, routines, communication needs, and supervision conditions that may contribute to persistent challenges.
• Develop and model practical supports, including visual schedules, transition strategies, reinforcement systems, sensory or environmental supports, predictable routines, effective facilitation, and classroom-management techniques.
• Collaborate with Program Directors on participant-support strategies, family and school communication, and appropriate escalation or referral while maintaining confidentiality, professional boundaries, and the scope of an afterschool program.
• Promote strengths-based approaches that recognize participants’ abilities, needs, cultures, identities, and developmental differences.

Curriculum and Activity Development

• Develop and maintain lesson-plan templates, enrichment materials, activity resources, and inclusive adaptations aligned with DYCD requirements.
• Help staff design engaging, hands-on, project-based learning experiences differentiated for participants’ developmental, behavioral, learning, and communication needs.
• Identify and share evidence-based instructional, social-emotional learning, inclusion, positive youth-development, and behavior-support strategies.
• Support accessible activities in social-emotional learning, academic enrichment, literacy, STEM/STEAM, leadership development, healthy living and physical activity, college and career awareness, and civic engagement.
• Modify activities as needed to improve accessibility, engagement, learning outcomes, and meaningful participation for children with varying abilities.

Staff Coaching and Professional Development

• Provide ongoing observation, constructive feedback, direct modeling, and side-by-side coaching to Activity Specialists, Group Leaders, instructors, and other frontline staff.
• Identify staff-development needs and collaborate with Program Directors and program leadership on targeted coaching and professional-development plans.
• Develop and facilitate workshops on inclusive program environments, positive behavior supports, classroom and group management, redirection, de-escalation, co-regulation, age-appropriate communication, trauma-responsive practice, social-emotional learning, neurodiversity, IEPs and disabilities, autism awareness, transitions and routines, participant engagement, and effective activity facilitation.
• Support new-staff onboarding by reinforcing expectations for positive youth development, inclusion, supervision, behavior support, engagement, and program quality.
• Provide professional development and technical assistance to 21st CCLC staff and other expanded-learning programs, as assigned.

Monitoring, Compliance, and Continuous Improvement

• Help Program Directors prepare for DYCD monitoring visits, audits, coaching visits, and quality reviews.
• Support compliance with DYCD program-quality standards, contractual requirements, organizational expectations, and applicable policies.
• Maintain documentation of observations, coaching, professional development, program-quality initiatives, and improvement efforts.
• Analyze and communicate cross-site patterns or trends requiring leadership attention.
• Support corrective-action and quality-improvement plans when monitoring, observations, incidents, or program data identify areas for improvement.

Collaboration and Communication

• Meet regularly with Program Directors to review program quality, participant engagement, behavioral and inclusion trends, staff-development needs, site priorities, and follow-up actions.
• Meet with the Program Manager and other program leaders to share cross-site trends, participant-support concerns, professional-development needs, and continuous-improvement priorities.
• Collaborate with organizational leadership, school partners, families, and community partners as appropriate and within the role’s scope.
• Promote consistent behavioral, instructional, and youth-development practices across assigned COMPASS sites while responding to each school community’s needs.
• Participate in organizational meetings, training, and professional-development opportunities, and perform other duties as assigned.

• Master’s degree in Social Work, Psychology, Special Education, Counseling, Applied Behavior Analysis, Education, or a related clinical, behavioral, or social-services field or Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Psychology, Special Education, Education, Child Development, Applied Behavior Analysis, Counseling, Human Services, Youth Development, or a closely related field.
• At least three (3) years of direct experience working with children and youth in youth development, afterschool programming, education, special education, behavioral health, mental health, community-based services, or a related setting.
• Experience supporting children and youth with behavioral, developmental, social-emotional, communication, or learning needs.
• Demonstrated knowledge and practical application of positive behavior supports, de-escalation, classroom or group management, co-regulation, and developmentally appropriate behavior-support strategies.
• Experience developing lesson plans, enrichment activities, educational programming, differentiated activities, or participant-support resources.
• Experience coaching staff, facilitating professional development, modeling effective practice, or providing technical assistance to frontline youth-development or educational staff.
• Experience conducting classroom or program observations, providing constructive feedback, and supporting program-quality improvement.
• Knowledge of positive youth development, social-emotional learning, inclusive programming, neurodiversity, and strengths-based practice.

• Five (5) years of relevant direct experience.
• Experience supporting children with IEPs or disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, communication differences, or other developmental and learning needs.
• Experience in DYCD COMPASS, 21st CCLC, afterschool, school-based, special education, behavioral-health, mental-health, or youth-development programs.
• Relevant credential or certification, such as LMSW/LCSW, LMHC, BCBA/BCaBA, a school psychology credential, special education certification, or a comparable credential, depending on the final scope of the position.
• Bilingual English/Spanish proficiency.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Coaching and facilitation: Translate behavioral, inclusion, youth-development, and instructional principles into practical strategies for fast-paced afterschool environments; model effective practice and provide constructive feedback.
• Subject-matter knowledge: Apply knowledge of positive youth development, social-emotional learning, behavior support, neurodiversity, child and adolescent development, inclusive programming, curriculum implementation, classroom and group management, and program-quality standards.
• Participant-centered practice: Understand how disabilities, developmental differences, communication needs, trauma, environmental factors, and social-emotional needs may influence behavior and engagement.
• Judgment and boundaries: Remain calm and solutions-focused during challenging situations; model appropriate de-escalation and redirection; distinguish program-based support from clinical diagnosis or treatment; and elevate concerns outside the role’s scope.
• Communication and collaboration: Demonstrate strong communication, observation, problem-solving, relationship-building, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Organization and technology: Manage multiple priorities across several sites with attention to detail and flexibility; use Microsoft Office Suite, Google Workspace, presentation software, and virtual training platforms proficiently.
• Travel and schedule: Travel frequently between program locations, conduct observations, model strategies in program spaces, facilitate staff training, and occasionally work evenings and weekends as needed.

We are committed to excellence in diversity, equity, and inclusion, while simultaneously creating a culture that supports those values. We believe the differences we bring enhance our ability to provide exceptional service and care to diverse children, families, and communities. Moreover, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging align with our values and our mission to help vulnerable children and their families build permanent, positive change.