By Monique Roth

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – St. John the Baptist Parish’s school district has designed a truancy hotline to gather information on local youths who are suspected of being out of school during school hours.

Hotline callers can re  main anonymous, and callers should be ready to provide information about the young people. Information collected will include gender, ethnicity, clothing colors, approximate age and the area last seen.

Information collected will be reported to the St. John Parish school district’s

truancy department and/or the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The initiative was designed to work with the community and other agencies to ensure the youths of the parish can enjoy a fruitful education leading to a successful future for themselves.

The number for the hotline is 985-479-2929.

At the March 20 school board meeting, Director of Child Welfare and Attendance Elton Oubre presented the board with a truancy report. The report indicated attendance has either remained relatively the same or improved at district schools and that dropout rates at East. St. John High School, West St. John High School and St. John Alternative School have all decreased so far in the 2013-2014 school year when compared to 2012-2013 rates.