Hosting K-12 Outreach in the Allen School

If you're hosting or participating in an Allen School event that includes youth below the age of 18, then this page is for you! Allen School community members (faculty, staff, and students) wishing to work with youth must fulfill UW’s requirements for programs working with youth as laid out in APS 10.13.

if you're hosting a more general UW youth event, you might want to consult your unit's outreach team, or the Office for Youth Programs Development and Support for more specific guidance for your program.

3 Step Guide to Youth Programs Requirements

  1. Read this guide thoroughly

    2. The requirements for programs set out in APS 10.13 are not optional, but they are easy to fulfill and we've made this page to help the process for Allen School community members who are conducting activities with k-12 audiences.

  2. Fulfill Requirements for Youth Programs

    3. All programs or groups must designate Authorized Personnel to be present during interactions or communications with youth. Authorized personnel must meet the requirements laid out below before the event can take place.

    Authorized Personnel must complete Reporting Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect and Promoting Safe Interactions with Youth trainings found on the youth programs training page as well as pass a background check, which will be initiated when you register your program or event(s) with the University. Programs should plan for Background Checks to cost on average $30-$50. As of February 1, 2021 all Authorized Personnel must also agree to a standard Code of Conduct and a Virtual Programs addendum, found here.

  3. Register your program/event

    4. The University's program for tracking requirements is called the Youth Programs Registration System or YPRS.

    Check out this doc of the required information.

    Register your program here: YPRS or contact our team at outreach@cs.washington.edu for assistance with this process.

Click on topics below to learn more about requirements

The YPRS serves as a mechanism to initiate completion of background checks and required trainings and allows program directors to track completion of these requirements for their authorized personnel. Thirty days before the program start date, the YPRS sends notifications to personnel and program directors to alert them of all incomplete requirements and walk staff through all required actions. Through the YPRS, program directors can see compliance information in real time and send personalized reminders to staff to complete requirements.

Third party-led programs and activities using UW facilities are also required to meet the standards set in this policy.

Before your program start date you must: (a) register your program in the YPRS and (b) confirm all authorized personnel have completed a background check and two required trainings

It is recommended that youth programs begin the registration process at least 1 month prior to the program start date to ensure personnel have met the screening and training requirements before they interact with youth. Compliance is represented as completion of those elements before the start date of the session. Should authorized personnel not complete the requirements before the start date of the session, they will be considered out of compliance for that session and the session will be considered non-compliant.

APS 10.13 Requirements for University and Third Party Led Youth Programs places specific requirements on individuals designated as “authorized personnel.” Authorized personnel are employees (including staff, faculty and other academic personnel), students or volunteers who possess any of the following responsibilities with regards to youth:

  • Supervision

  • Custodial Care

  • Chaperone

  • Caregiving

  • Or have unsupervised access to youth. (Unsupervised access means that there is a potential, even if remote, that the individual could be left alone with a youth or group of youth without other “authorized personnel” present.)

It is advisable to designate at least one authorized personnel for any youth program, even in circumstances where youth are in the care or supervision of other non-affiliated adults, e.g., classroom teachers, chaperones, parents, etc

One of the requirements of APS 10.13 is background checks for all authorized personnel. This is fairly easy to be in compliance with if you register your team properly in the YPRS, as they will be initiated as you add your staff to the system, and they complete their trainings.

You should plan for this to come out of your project’s budget. The cost will be on average between $30-$50 per check, but can range higher or lower depending on the amount of counties the individual has resided in previously.Program personnel who have had a background check through other UW programs may not require new background checks.

Click here to go to the youth programs training page

Authorized personnel must complete the “Promoting Safe Interactions with Youth”  and "Reporting Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect” online training prior to interacting with youth. Training completion will be tracked centrally in the YPRS. This training is available online through the Bridge TMS, accessible with a UWNetID. For personnel who do not have a UW Net ID, watch the Reporting Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect on YouTube and email uwminors@uw.edu for the assessment link.

Youth programs must sufficiently train all personnel to provide safe and developmentally appropriate program services.


Need Help with K-12 Outreach?

The Allen School's Diversity & Access team is a team under the guidance of the undergraduate Student Services Team. Formed in 2019, the mission of the Diversity and Access team is to attract and educate the next generation of computer scientists who reflect the multidimensions of diversity in Washington State and the diverse needs, backgrounds, and experiences of technology users around the world. We do this by broadening participating in computing at the K-12 level, focusing our outreach and recruitment effort on students who are underrepresented in the computing field, and ensuring that students of all backgrounds feel that they belong and can thrive in the Allen School. We use the National Science Foundation definition of underrepresented in the computing field including students who are women, African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Native Pacific Islander, and students with disabilities. 

Program Contacts

To learn more about our team & the Undergraduate Student Services Team (USST) on the team page found here.

email us at outreach@cs.washington.edu

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Our Role

  • Supporting You (program hosts)

    • We help you navigate UW’s youth program requirements & registration program, including going through the entire process with you as a partner.

    • We can help you recruit students or connect you with partners who can.

    • We can recommend best practices and guidelines for different types of events.

  • Supporting the Allen School

    • We help ensure that the Allen School is following UW requirements and guidelines in youth programming

    • We are a coordination point for otherwise unrelated Allen School youth outreach programs and can provide context on overall goals of outreach programs within the Allen school. 

  • Supporting and Protecting Youth

    • The goal of UW requirements and all of our guidelines and best practices are informed from a desire to ensure that all youth can access university programs in a safe and informed environment.


Other Resources