Turning 5 Consultant (Special Education Office, NYC Department of Education)

Position Summary: The Kindergarten Transition (Turning Five/T5) process is the introduction to public school for over 17,000 families each year. It is the most critical point in setting out the educational experience for students with disabilities, including determining their needs and identifying the elementary schools they will attend. It is therefore closely legally regulated and monitored.

Following an evaluation process, parents or guardians of all NYC preschoolers with disabilities who are eligible to receive school-age special education services (Turning 5/T5 students) are notified by mail of recommended services, programs, and placement. The cross-functional work around this process is essential to ensuring that all students receive the correct services and school placements in an efficient and timely manner.

The Turning 5 Consultant is necessary to implement the Turning 5 initiative. They will ensure that all questions and concerns related to case assignment and technical systems issues raised by district office CSE staff, supervisors of psychologists, preschool staff, families, and community are addressed. This includes connecting district office CSE and preschool staff to relevant procedures and policies to build their capacity and flagging for the Supervisor of Psychologists and/or CSE teams when clarity may be necessary for their teams at large. The T5 Consultant will also collaborate with the T5 Project Lead in addressing Tier 1 issues that come into the Turning 5 Inbox from families, advocates, and preschool staff. Performs related work.

Reports to: T5 Project Lead

Responsibilities

·        Responds to T5CaseManagement and Turning 5 Inbox queries and escalations from families and advocates. Investigates inquiries using MS Access and MS Excel.

·        Reassigns cases using MS access, SharePoint, SESIS.

·        Takes notes in regular meetings with DOE stakeholders, ensuring that all representatives are aware of timelines and expectations.

·        Plans and implements all logistics and operations around several mass mailings, ensuring the timeliness and accuracy of thousands of notices sent to families.

·        Formats and updates guidance documents for field.

Qualification Requirements:

·        Must have a Bachelor’s Degree.

·        Must be proficient in MS Word, MS Access, MS Excel

·        Must have excellent writing, and editing skills.

·        Solid communication and problem-solving skills, the ability to gather and analyze information and summarize succinctly.

·        Attentive to detail, extremely well organized; ability to work under pressure and meet frequent and changing deadlines.