By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LUTCHER – St. James Parish took a lead role in the state some years ago regarding taking control of its truancy situation. As part of the measures to combat the growing problem, the parish instituted the Families in Need of Services advocacy program.

Started in 1998, the program identifies problem truants and tries to intervene on a personal level before the problem becomes too great.

“If there’s a truancy problem, there’s usually a problem somewhere in the family,” said 23rd Judicial District Court Judge Thomas Kliebert.

Kliebert told the St. James Parish School Board at its meeting last week FINS handled 249 cases during the 2009-10 school year. He also explained the costs for running the program are split between the parish government and the school system and other governmental agencies at the state level.

Unfortunately, because of personnel changes at both the parish government office and the school system, the school system had not made any payments since January 2007.

Said Superintendent Alonzo “Lonnie” Luce, “We didn’t really get billed for a couple of years.”

According to Parish President Dale Hymel, the St. James School System owes the parish around $85,000 for the FINS program. Subsequently, the School Board unanimously approved a measure to bring their payments up to date.

Following this, Board Vice President George Nassar asked, “Have you noticed a decrease in the number of students coming before you (in truancy court)?”

Kliebert said the decline has been significant.

He did add, though, that the tightening of truancy regulations throughout the state has made the work of the program much more difficult. High school students can now only miss five days before having to repeat the class.

“By the time you get a handle on the situation, it’s almost too late,” said Kliebert.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved the student policy handbook for the upcoming school year. According to Administrative Director of Student Services Gaynell Albert, the only significant changes to this year’s code reflect the statewide changes in compulsory attendance regulations. She said some disciplinary measures also had to be relaxed because of the more stringent attendance requirements.

“It’s going to be tough,” she said. “The kids are going to have to do some serious adjusting to this.”

The complete handbook can be viewed on the school system’s website, www.stjames.k12.la.us.