With significant increases in Louisiana’s truancy rate and the number of children entering foster care and the juvenile delinquency system, the Office of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet and the Pelican Center for Children and Families sounded a call to action and collaboration among school and juvenile justice system professionals. Leaders believed that forging local partnerships is critical to improve school conduct and attendance outcomes, maintain safe schools, proactively address the student engagement crisis, and mitigate child welfare and juvenile justice system involvement escalation. Alongside partners including the Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund, Louisiana Youth for Excellence, and the Louisiana Court Improvement Program, these organizations planned the Strengthening Louisiana’s Children and Families Solutions Summit to support solution planning.
Why The Community Opportunity Map
Casey Family Programs’ Community Opportunity Map allows anyone to find child and family well-being data for any neighborhood across this nation to analyze, plan, and act alongside others to build Communities of Hope. The Community Opportunity Map has 30 indicators across five topic areas: child and family well-being, education, economy, housing, and accessibility (of food, internet, and transportation). The tool uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and several other sources, covering states, counties, Congressional districts, cities, and ZIP codes in all 50 states as well as the municipios of Puerto Rico. Two-thirds of the indicators can be disaggregated by race and ethnicity. Using the tool, public-private partnerships such as the Louisiana Solutions Summit can create precise, local strategic plans to invest in hope.
Summit Brings Together Key People From 11 Parishes
The Pelican Center alongside then-Gov. John Bel Edwards’ Office planned a one-day summit in September 2023 to bring together key individuals from 11 parishes in the state. Two parishes had the lowest truancy rates in the state, and the remaining nine had some of the highest truancy rates. From each parish, the hosts invited a team of school superintendents, child welfare and attendance supervisors, principals, law enforcement, truancy/probation officers, judges, juvenile services and detention center staff, district attorney office staff, public defender office staff, Truancy and Assessment Service Centers (TASC) representatives, and Family in Need of Services (FINS) representatives. The goal was to convene these stakeholders to learn about best practice programs and resources that improve outcomes for students, share ideas and experiences, and create strategies and solutions to improve student attendance, behavior, engagement, and family stability in their specific jurisdictions.