LSU Cuts Ties with Truancy Intervention Program

Louisiana State University will end its affiliation with the Truancy Assessment and Service Center because of mid-year budget cuts.

Last year after Cecile Guin, the head of TASC, convinced the Legislature to preserve funding for the program.

TASC intervenes in elementary school students’ lives when it’s reported that they’ve missed school.

"So you could see in the first grade, second grade, third grade just clear as a bell that had somebody either conducted a proper assessment, had somebody been able to deal with just child maltreatment or parental substance abuse the child would have been able to stay in school," Guin said.

This intervention has kept students from dropping out since 1997. Nearly half of those involved in the corrections system in Louisiana are dropouts. It’s estimated that the 2.3 million dollar program saves the state nearly 7 million dollars each year by keeping kids in school, out of jail and from becoming a drain on social services.

The statement is unclear as to if this means the end of TASC as a whole.

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