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Councilmember Christina Henderson 2
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A PROPOSED RESOLUTION 8
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IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 14
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To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend, on an emergency 19
basis, the Youth Employment Act of 1979 to establish a Middle School Career 20
Exploration Pilot program to provide soft skills training and volunteer opportunities to 21
young teens. 22
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RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this 24
resolution may be cited as the “Middle School Career Exploration Pilot Emergency Declaration 25
Resolution of 2023”. 26
Sec. 2. (a) The District’s summer Out-of -School Time (OST), Department of Parks and 27
Recreation (DPR), and Department of Employment Services (DOES) programming opportunities 28
are robust, but not all students can nor do participate. Middle schoolers may feel that they are too 29
old for DPR and OST programming, but they are not yet old enough to participate in the DOES 30
Summer Youth Employment Program. It is important that the District offer programming that 31
provides a broad array of extracurricular opportunities across age groups so that students’ 32
strengths and interests are engaged year-round. 33
(b) Middle school is a critical time for children’s exploration of and exposure to 34
opportunities in their broader community, and it is when youth typically first begin developing 35 skills that they eventually use to earn money. It is important that youth in this age group have a 36
broad array of hands-on experiences and opportunities to develop new and existing skills during 37
the summer and beyond. 38
(c) DOES currently offers the Middle School Exploration program to middle schoolers in 39
grades 6-8, but the program as currently instituted has only 3 providers and a total of 225 spots, 40
and participants are neither compensated nor incentivized. Given that there are approximately 41
17,000 middle school students enrolled in District of Columbia Public Schools and in charter 42
schools, an expanded pilot program is necessary to assess the impact of the current program and 43
the demand for a potential year-round expansion. This legislation will help lay the foundation for 44
the opportunities necessary to create positive long-term employment outcomes and help middle 45
school youth in the District in the summer of 2023. The emergency legislation’s effective date of 46
June 1, 2023 allows DOES to fully implement the pilot program immediately while the 47
permanent bill is considered by the Council. 48
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances 49
enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Middle 50
School Career Exploration Pilot Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 be adopted after a single 51
reading. 52
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately. 53