Hello Giblien,
Welcome. My background is similar and in that my wife was a substitute teacher and I worked as a school based
therapist. I currently work in social services with kids in foster care(removed from parents due to abuse).
This is what I've found to be helpful.
First a good relationship(rapport) with the youth/child is helpful.
Second, as strange as it may seem, because a child's family does not believe something,
it shouldn't deter you from sharing, and legally(generally speaking not about faith) there is nothing
that says you can only share ideas consistent with a families belief.
We see this all the time. The schools for those who don't know, are pushing homosexuality on the youth, teaching(yes, they are) that it is ok to be gay. Many Christian families do not believe this but it doesn't stop the school from teaching it. They teach evolution and that God had no part in creation, many families do not believe this, but this doesn't stop the school from teaching it.
They are even giving young girls contraception and abortions without parental knowledge(its happening)
and because the parents do not consent, it still isn't stopping the schools from acting in what they believe
is the child's best interest. So I say all this to encourage you that the idea of that families belief is not something that the school system currently seems to respect.
What I've done, and I hope it's not too much of compromising, but as a therapist in the schools or a social worker at department of social services. I've try to make the request come from the child and not from me. So I've found that many youth are asking questions and they want to know about God and Jesus, but the adults are scared feeling like there is some law about talking about Jesus. There isn't. The problem is when the adults are perceived as forcing something onto the child.
So what I do is probe and ask the youth about who they are, and even on the spiritual level and often this leads to them bring up God and that gives me an opening to respond. So I try to set the condition in which they will bring it up and when I see the opening I go in.
For example, I was at a team meeting with many other professionals and a girl(client of mine). I asked her during the meeting (this is a girl who was rescued from human sex traffiking) if she loved herself. And she said yes. I asked her why, and she stated she loved herself because she knew that God loved her. Her words not mine. So knowing that she had a relationship with God, I probed farther in the meeting and asked her what the relationship meant to her, did she pray, etc. And since she brought it up, I felt comfortable supporting her in the exploration of who she is.
I do it under the banner of identity. In our society, the LGBT agenda has flooded the child welfare and educational system and they are pressuring kids to think about their identity, and often times they use this to have kids question with sexual orientation as well as gender(transgendered). So I use this same banner of identity(not sexuality) to help kids discover who they are spiritually speaking, as a educator and licensed social worker I can say with confidence that identity is much more important than sexuality. And knowing that over 60% of Americans identify as Christian. This is an important aspect of identity that we should help kids explore in hopes that we will lead them to Christ.
Another example, one of my youth called me from a locked treatment facility that we have placed her in due to mental health issues and criminal behaviors. She was sharing some concerns. I asked her how she was managing her stress. I told her that I wanted to check in on all domains of her , physical, mental, and spiritual, as I treat the whole person. With physical we talked about exercise and tips to reduce her stress, with mental we talked about therapy and with spiritual I asked her about her religious affiliation. She stated to me that she was Christian. I asked her if she had a Bible and she stated she did not. I asked her if she wanted one and she said yes. At our treatment team meeting with a lot of other professional at the table, I brought a lot of books for her to read and also a BIble.
I told them that I had some reading materials for her that she had requested including a Bible, and they were fine.
I also had told her parent about her request and her grandmother who was also Christian was glad to hear. It was interesting because her own parents didn't have a Bible for her, but they were glad that I was giving her one.
So for me, I try to engage the youth and create the environment where they bring it up.
If you probe with the right questions you can easily lead a youth in the direction to open the door for you to go right in. And if they open the door, than it is not about you trying to force your belief but responding to a need that they bring up. It is part of the banner of identity as we can't deny that spirituality is a big part of ones identity, and sometimes even doing it in the presence of other adults helps. I think most adults do want to help the Children but we are all thinking that the other person will be against it.
Kinda like the story with the emperor's new clothes. The emperor is naked and no one is saying anything because they think that something is wrong with them because no one else is saying that the emperor is naked.
As a professional who has worked in schools, social services, therapy clinics, church camps, etc, etc my experience is the there are way more Christian's than atheist but the Christians are mostly keeping quiet because they think the next person doesn't want them to speak, but the next person is wants to speak but is keeping quiet because the other person is keeping quiet. Yes you will have a few loud ones who was oppose anything of Jesus but, just because they are loud doesn't mean they represent the majority or that they are right. Pray and God will guide you. The LORD has been working with me on a bold for Christ and Wise as well. I wasn't always as such. I even currently have prayer group in my office a state building and Bible Study daily, I send out a Bible study worker email for those who shared an interest. And I even made a stand to a program manager that I was not going to share certain materials because it was against my faith and I felt it was harmful (LGBT) to the youth and not in their best interest as such behaviors seem to correlate with higher suicide rates and more STDS and more incidences of depression. They told me it was my job or I had to leave. We'll I'm still here and I haven't compromised, so the LORD will keep you where He wants you to be if you are doing what He wants you to do. If you are walking in His will and end up moving it will only be because He allows it.
I bet you 100%, if you pray daily for this youth and ask God to use you to serve this child how this child needs to be served by you, God will make a way. It is His good pleasure to do so.
