Our History

In 1986, the New York State legislature recognized that incarcerated youth have a right to a high school education, and society has the obligation to provide that education. Subsequent to this legislation, a core group of directors from fledgling incarcerated youth programs in the counties of Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester met to share program ideas. In an effort to help fledgling school programs which were developing to comply with the 1986 legislation, the initial core group, together with a few other directors and educators from throughout New York State, planned and implemented its first statewide conference on the subject. That conference, held at Saratoga springs, New York in the Spring of 1989, ignited the interest of many persons who were involved with incarcerated youth throughout New York State.

The planning committee of the first Conference, joined by a few more administrators, teachers and corrections staff from across New York State, began working closely with the New York State Education Department, and became known as a Steering Committee. The New York State Education Department sponsored regular meetings with this steering committee, and in the Spring of 1991, following a vote of the attendees at the third annual conference, The New York State Association of Incarcerated Youth Programs (NYSAIYP) was formed as an affiliate of the Correctional Educational Association (CEA), an international professional association dedicated to the development, implementation and improvement of educational programs for incarcerated persons.

In an effort to better reflect the ever broadening membership of the organization, the name was changed to the New York State Association of Incarcerated Education Programs, by a vote of the membership at the annual Spring 1994 conference. NYSAIEP, Inc. continues to provide professionals who work in the field of incarcerated education and other related disciplines a forum for professional growth and development, as well as the ever important opportunity to network.