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DYS managers ask to be reclassified to Group 2, citing repeated assaults and crisis interventions
Summary
Department of Youth Services program managers and district managers told the committee their administrative titles do not reflect the ongoing client contact, restraints and assault risk they face and asked the committee to extend Group 2 retirement status to DYS management positions.
Department of Youth Services (DYS) administrators urged the Joint Committee on Public Service to reclassify certain administrative titles—program managers, assistant program managers and district managers—to Group 2 retirement status.
Susan Smith Campbell, a DYS district manager with 23 years’ service, told the committee that management staff frequently participate in physical restraints, crisis interventions and are victims of assaultive behaviors when supervising youth in facility programs. She listed recent examples from 2024 and 2025, including staff punched, head‑butted and sustaining concussions during restraints, an employee struck with scissors, and multiple instances of spitting and other assaults.
Campbell said some DYS administrative titles are already in existing Group 2 classifications but that the roles she described—despite sounding “administrative”—require floor presence and direct interaction with youth in high‑risk situations. She asked the committee to extend Group 2 recognition to those administrative positions to reflect the dangers and the physical and mental toll on staff.
No formal committee action on the request was recorded during the hearing.
