OneRouge Community Check-In: Week 222

FAFSA and Dual Enrollment: Answers to Common Questions

As students and parents plan for the future, questions about FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and dual enrollment often come up. Both can be confusing, but we’ve brought in guest speakers to help you navigate these important topics.

FAFSA: How to Get Financial Aid

Parents often wonder how to apply, what documents are needed, and how family income affects eligibility. Our guest speaker, Dr. Felicia Young, will explain the process and answer your questions.

Dual Enrollment: Earning College Credit Early

Students can earn college credit in high school through dual enrollment, but many parents and students are unsure how it works. A school board representative, Dadrius Lanus, will discuss the benefits of dual enrollment and how credits transfer to other colleges.

Get Your Questions Answered

Read on for insights from our guest speakers and discover how you can confidently navigate FAFSA and dual enrollment. You don’t have to face these decisions alone!

Updates on Hurricane Francine

In addition, we’ll hear from Capital Area United Way President George Bell and Chief Administrative Officer of Baton Rouge Dante Bidwell who will provide updates on their efforts to support communities affected by Hurricane Francine. They will share important resources and ongoing recovery efforts in our state.

Our Guest Speakers:

• Felicia Young Ed.D

• Dadrius Lanus

  
  

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Notes

Casey Phillips: Awesome. So George, I'm not gonna be on the phone without bringing up jazz. I said, how have you been keeping the record player on through all the chaos of the storm prep and response, my friend? Oh, George, you're on mute. 

George Bell: Not as much, but I hope to get back to it this weekend.

Casey: Yeah, man. I said, I actually, as a birthday present my goddess actually gave me a new turntable because my old one's been broken and I was able to spend some time on the weekend when I was doing my storm prep I was able to spend time with all my friends on vinyl. And it's got a new piece, a couple of new pieces of jazz. I look forward to sharing with you. But with that being said, everybody welcome to the Friday jazz hour here at One Rouge coalition. George, I always like to say that most people know George through his years at United Way or at the Baton Rouge General, but I first got to know George with his trumpet in his hand and him blowing on stage. And he's an amazing jazz musician. And they said we all have a lot of different sides to us. Folks, I don't really know what the correct emotional response to the hurricane is. In some ways inside the core of East Baton Rouge Parish there's no doubt we were spared. There's still people without power and there's still some damage and we have our community partners on the line to talk about it. But the reality is to our friends in New Orleans and then everywhere in between in Livingston and a lot of the rural parishes were hugely impacted. So we're going to take the first 15 minutes of the call today to really talk about the status of the storm response. We have Dante from the mayor's office and George from the United Way here to just give everybody an update. And then, of course, if you have questions for them, please put it in the chat. If you know of groups that need help, if families that need help, please put that into the chat so that everybody can connect people to the necessary resources. So with that being said Tia will lead us through the rest of our call afterwards, but we're going to start with George with the United Way, George.  

George: Casey, thank you. And let me first commend you for convening this group. This started four years ago during the pandemic and it has sustained and been a thriving part of our ecosystem nonprofit organizations and just concerned community members who are doing this work. So I commend you for it and I appreciate this opportunity to be with you today. Let me just tell you that Hurricane Francine was in many ways a bit of a real test for us as a community. It's been several years since we had a hurricane event that affected our area since hurricane Ida. And I'm so proud of the way we have responded. And I'm grateful that we did not suffer any major loss or damage here in our community, but the process is still important. And the preparation is a vital part of making sure that we remain viable and vibrant through these types of events. I want to share with you our process for United Way and I'm going to see if I can share my screen? Is it possible?  

Tia Fields: You can make a request and I can see if I can push it through. 

George: Okay. Alright. 

Casey: George, you're one of the few people that such a request would be entertained. As you remember, this is a no sharing space, but this is to get vital information to our community members. 

George: I'll tell you what I'll do, before the end of the presentation, I'll share a link to where the information that I'd like you to have. But I wanna do two things. I wanted to share with you the process that we use to prepare at Capital United Way and with our group. So leading up to a storm or a disaster event, and in most cases it's storms. We deploy our staff and we say, okay. We need to make sure that we are touching every parish in our 10 parish area region. And when it comes to 211, we actually cover 11 parishes. We assign each staff member and sometimes two staff members to monitor the information that's being available in a parish, and it could be anything from resources where the emergency shelters are, it could be sandbag locations, emergency food and water. It could be animal shelters. Any notices, school closures, things like that we found that it's important that we make sure that the information that's being provided is vetted. And then we share that with our 211 team so that they can upload that information into the 211 database. If any of you have ever called any kind of resource line or what have you, it's important that the information that's given out is accurate and up to date. And we go to great lengths to make sure that process is successful. Is in place leading up to a disaster event like we had with hurricane with this current hurricane. The other thing we do, and we don't get into the weather updates because those are being provided and they change so, so rapidly, but those resources become vital. Then we put that information on our website. We put that information like I said, in the 211 database. And then we distribute that information to the folks that many of them, on the call and into our stakeholders so that we're providing timely, up to date information about these resources. That's fine. We when, after the event occurs, after the in this case, after the hurricane passed through that's when we shift gears to reaching out to you guys to make sure that we have a good handle on any needs. So we shift gears and start reaching out to our funded partners. Our community stakeholders, our donors, our corporate partners. And we're trying to assess or do you have any needs? Are there any needs that you want to share with us that we can perhaps help you source and find whatever the need is. And I tell folks that's where the real fun begins because you just never know what the damage is. You never know what the scope of needs are. So it's really trying to see where the needs are greatest. And then once we have that information, that's where we go to work. And we try to make sure we're connecting resources to those needs. And we're also connecting individuals to opportunities because the other thing that happens in services is that we were made aware of teams organizations that are ready to go and provide support to those communities that are in need. So that is in a nutshell, the process. Now, once we have a clear indication of where the need is, and if that need indeed includes our region, we'll set up a fund. In this case, we set up a disaster fund yesterday to allow folks to give to that fund to support our work here. And that is one of those things that, that we've been blessed in past disasters to, to have, corporate partners that really have confidence in our ability to connect those resources to the organizations that are doing the work as well as the individuals that have a need for it. That kind of support and relief. I covered a lot of territory there, but it is one of those things that we deploy for every disaster. And, like I said, the good news is that when we start getting that information from some of our partners and some of our funded partners in particular that's where we go to work. And I'll give you an example, the best example I can give  of how that worked. So yesterday, late yesterday afternoon, we had a request from Catholic Charities that there was a need for tarps in the St. James area, and we were striking out trying to find tarps, available tarps on short notice like that. We've been not giving up on that request. And we put feelers out, to some of our corporate partners as well, but I just happened to call the Cajun Navy, United Cajun Navy Todd Terrell, and Todd just so happened to have been in contact with the folks from Rubicon. They were in the Terrebonne Parish area. They had a crew of nine folks that were there, and they were ready to do tarp work and whatever was needed. But there wasn't a need for it there. So we were able to catch them. This was after six o'clock last night. They were gonna redeploy them to send them home. And we were able to catch them and have them come to St. James Parish or to Baton Rouge, and they've spent the night here, and they're being deployed to St. James Parish to not only provide tarps, but they're actually going to install those tarps in the properties or the houses that the Catholic Charities identifies. That came up from a call, first it came up from a request, and then the solution result that came about from a call that happened to be a timely call, and that's how these connections work. And I just, I encourage you to keep the channels open as far as what the needs are as well as what the resources are. We have received information about folks that want to volunteer and are looking for volunteer opportunities. So I encourage you to go to our website and I'll put that in. In fact, I think Melanie is on the line. Melanie, if you don't mind putting our website on the chat. 

Melanie Henderson: Yeah I'll do all the toolkit and everything that we have.

George: Great. All right. And I'm going to stop there because I definitely want to make sure that I give some time to allow some time for questions.  

Casey: Excellent. And George, I'm going to start with the questions real quick. Where, what parishes are y'all getting the most 211 requests for them in the last 48 hours?

George: And thank you for teeing that up because we, another vital part of this communication loop is the calls that we receive through 211 and the data that represents. And so far we have had the most calls from Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge Parish, and Ascension and Livingston. Those are the four parishes that seem to be most affected by this hurricane. Things they're calling about post or for let's see, because we haven't broken down into post disaster. So food pantries, post disaster post disaster cleanup supplies and support and tools and then disaster related shelter services. And then disaster related debris removal. So I will tell you that this data is, through 4 p.m. yesterday. So it's still early. Those needs are going to change as utilities come back online and people get back into their homes and assess their needs and their situations. But by and large, we were quite fortunate in that we did not suffer greater damage and impact from this  most recent school.  

George: Excellent. Thank you, George. I appreciate you. And if you don't mind sticking on people, if you have questions or you need, if you want to connect resources to the need, or you had me that need resources. Please start putting in the chat. Dante, I wanted to open up space for you to give a report out from the mayor's office perspective. I know you're busy and there's also a big convening this weekend that would be a really good one for people to come together and talk about that need for blue skies work when the gray skies do come. Dante, thank you for joining us today. 

Dante Bidwell: Absolutely. Am I coming through clearly? Thank you. And good morning. My name is Dante Bidwell, chief administrative officer for the city parish working directly with our mayor, president Sharon Weston Broom. And it's been a long couple of days, however, to echo Mr. Bell, we were largely spared the worst of it. here in East Baton Rouge Parish. But also I want George to know like there is a seat in the emergency operations center with your name on it. If you ever want to come up there, man, because everything that you're saying is absolutely spot on. And the need for us to be prepared. What I find is, when you're the most prepared, that's when you know things go smoothly and you respect it because when you're not prepared, that's when you get tested. And I want you all to know that we had about 35 agencies inside of our emergency operations center from every public safety agency, police, fire, E.M.S. Along with all of our DPW department heads, all of the other municipalities within East Baton Rouge Parish were represented as well as the Louisiana National Guard. So we really were preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. I'll report out on a few figures. Most of the wind damage that we received in East Baton Rouge Parish was related to power outages and downed trees. I think at the height, we had about 28,000 folks across the parish without power, and that's between Energy and Demco. I think that number now is somewhere around 10 to 11,000 as of this morning so they're working pretty rapidly to get folks power and electricity turned back on in these parishes. Additionally, we had about a little over 60 trees that got blown into streets and were blocking roads and other travel ways. So far out of those 62, we've already cleared 59 of them. And really our DPW crews got on the road within about an hour after the super high wind stopped and they worked overnight. Going from Wednesday to Thursday. And so I really want to give a big shout out that a lot of folks think about disaster response as it relates to, typical first responders, police, fire, EMS, and they absolutely did an incredible job, but our folks from public works put in a lot of work on the front end, making sure that we were prepared and on the back end responding from Monday to Tuesday night, we cleared about 200 storm drains. And that's not including all of the work that we've done in recent years, where we spent about 70 million improving our drainage and stormwater retention here in East Baton Rouge Parish, primarily using a lot of federal dollars that we've been able to bring in post COVID. Additionally, we had nine different sandbag locations in concert with Brec, where we were allowing folks to come in and we've dropped off more than 1100 cubic yards of sand, and then we also pre filled about another 1100 pre filled sandbags that we delivered to the council on aging so that they could distribute to seniors. So it really was all hands on deck, very coordinated effort. Again, I'm very glad that the worst of it did not come to East Baton Rouge Parish, but I do want you all to know that we are partnering with our neighboring parishes that had been hit a little bit harder. In fact, we have a number of Baton Rouge Fire Department officials that have been sent to St Mary Parish down on the coast to assist with their recovery in response efforts as well. I know I'm throwing a lot of information out there. I'll open up the floor to any questions and apologies. I'm on my phone, so I can't see if they're coming through in the chat. Casey, if you would let me know if there's any questions.  

Casey: Yeah, no questions in particular. Anybody want to come off mute and have any questions for George or or Dante? 

George: Hey Casey and Dante, I just wanted to be able to mention that we did have a seat representing United Way at the mayor's office of emergency and that was LaDuan Butler. So she was there for the entire activation period.  

Dante: Oh, I know. And I met Ms. Butler. I'm talking about George Bell in person next time. I got to seat for you, sir. For you one thing that I failed to mention, and this is less related to hurricane response, but I do want to let folks know that if you've heard about the connecting East Baton Rouge Neighborhoods Convention that's scheduled for this Saturday, we are still fully intending to proceed with the neighborhood convention, we're going to be bringing together, not only mayor president, but all the mayors from the municipalities within the Baton Rouge parish. We've got folks from our public safety agencies and public works. We're going to be talking about how to establish a formal neighborhood associations and crime prevention districts. We're going to talk about the public's role in public safety. We're going to talk about how we are combating blight and litter throughout our communities and a number of other topics. If you've ever wanted to know how to get engaged with your local government and that really is from any city within this parish Baker, Zachary, St. George, Central and Baton Rouge, and even the unincorporated. We're bringing the folks together from the North to the South of East Baton Rouge and we're going to talk about, like I said, how to engage with local government, but also what you can be doing to better organize your communities in your neighborhood. And I think that this One Rouge call is a great example of how we can bring folks together and we can figure out how to do it on a more localized scale as well. So again, we are continuing to have the neighborhood convention tomorrow. And for folks that have not yet registered, you can register at For free at B R L A dot gov slash neighbors registration is free parking at the river center garages is free. We're also going to be providing breakfast, lunch, and Raising Canes and sponsoring a community tailgate. Both Southern and LSU have away games tomorrow. So we're going to bring together East Baton Rouge tailgate with our partners at Cane's. So I look forward to seeing you there. 

Casey: Man, that's, I hate to say it, but that's the news of the week. Free parking at the Rivers Center parking lot. I've never seen it, I've never seen it. It is true, anything is possible. Alright, awesome Dante. Thank you for sharing that. And everybody that is able to attend tomorrow please do folks this one it's important that we stay prepared. Tristi did drop into the chat if anybody would like to get involved in the volunteer efforts Mike Manning has taken back over VOAD, which is good for our city, by the way that it's moving, it's moving. It's an important apparatus in the equation. So I'm happy to see that. And then again, don't keep you, keep your guard up. As I said we have the rest of September into the early part of October. And make sure that you are registered with 211. If you do provide any of those kind of services, make sure that your organization's profile is updated with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation so that you can receive funding for said work. And yeah, and that's just keep staying prepped and all that. George and Dante, I know you both are incredibly busy. I appreciate y'all being here. You want to hang on and there's if there's any additional questions in the chat, which there does not appear to be as said. Please, you're welcome to stay, but we're gonna go ahead and shift on to the rest of our call. And again, thank you all for being here this morning with this update. Tia, take it away, my friend. 

Tia: Thank you so much, Casey. Thank you, Dante and Dr. Bell for sharing all that information. And also our community partners that are dedicated to making sure that we reach out and help our neighbors. As we shift today's conversation is going to be about expanding educational opportunities. We have the pleasure of having Dr. Felicia Young on the call as well as Mr. Lanus with the school board. I'll start with Dr. Young. You have five minutes to tell us who you are and what it is that you do. And then we'll shift it over to Mr. Lanus.  

Dr. Felicia Young: Okay. My name is Dr. Felicia Young. I am the owner of Higher Minds of Education. We are a higher education consultant firm that helps students in Louisiana that do FAFSA completion, college assistance, college application assistance, as well as scholarships. It is a pleasure to be here to talk about FAFSA and all of the things that are going on in the crazy world of higher education, and that is who I am. Thank you.  

Tia: Sheesh, that wasn't even two minutes, but for that. Okay Ms. Lanus, you can go ahead and take it away and just tell the people who you are and what it is that you do in this great work of education. 

Dadrius Lanus: No problem at all. Listen, I try my best not to use two minutes either, but how you all doing this morning? It's great seeing so many amazing faces, especially up at the storm we just went through. If you look in the sky outside today you wouldn't even tell that we went through anything. So it's just crazy, but it's also amazing to know we have so many amazing community stakeholders coming together to help us resolve a lot of our issues. But my name is Dadrius Lanus. I serve at the pleasure of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board. I've been there for quite some time now. I'm on my second term and have six years in, have two more years on this particular term. Last year, I was the youngest ever servant out of that role. A tremendous honor understanding the dynamics and the demographics of our district but I'm here to answer any questions that you all may have concerning our schools, the reopening of schools and any opportunities you may have inside of our school system. Thank you. 

Tia: Thank you for that. So one of the topics that I wanted to touch on for those who don't know. So with our education to career coalition, we focus on raising literacy rates, we focus on trying to make schools as community hubs as well as creating and sustaining opportunities for continuing education. When I think of continued education, I think of FAFSA, I think of dual enrollment. When it comes to FAFSA, Dr. Young, what are some of the changes that have taken place that could impact people who have limited access or knowledge based on that process?  

Dr. Young: As we all know, FASFA was a crazy experience for the previous school year. There was a delayed rollout. It created chaos and everything for everybody attempting to go to school. So to remedy that issue, The Department of Education is doing beta testing right now, so they will start their beta testing October 1 just to give a small group of students to work through what the kinks are from the last FAFSA. For students who are underserved or who need extra assistance with FAFSA, now is the time to start collecting documents. They do tax forms for two years prior. So make sure that you have your tax documents, you have your username and passwords correct because if you do not have those things correctly done, that can hold you back. So that would be my first advice. Just make sure that you have everything that you need in order to be successful. So when you sit down with someone to complete your FAFSA, you will not be confused about what to do next. Just making sure you have your documents. 

Tia: Okay. So what impact happens if a person is not able to complete their FAFSA in a timely manner? 

Dr. Young: That will definitely hold you back from being able to receive institutional aid. A lot of schools use FAFSA as a way to determine if students are going to be able to receive additional aid. So if you are doing your FAFSA, that is also the application for TOPS. When you do your FAFSA, that is also an indicator to schools how much money you're going to receive from the government so they can assist you in getting additional funds. So just making sure that FAFSA is done timely ensures that you're able to get additional money from your schools or institutions so you can finish paying for your school. There is tons of information out there on scholarships, on grants and things you can get to make sure that you don't have to pay a lot of money out of pocket. I don't know about you guys, but I have lots of student loan debt getting this doctorate degree. So I want to make sure that students are not settled with the debt that we occurred just because we were told education, the debt was good debt. So to make sure that students have the opportunity to complete their degrees without debt, they can buy houses when they graduated, things like that. Just this all is a trickle down effect of doing fast for on time. 

Tia: So when I'm here and do FAFSA on time, and I'm thinking about the pro the dual role program with the East Baton Rouge School parish school system, if I have a senior right now that's going to graduate next year, when do I start? And I'm going to jump to you after this question, Mr. Lanus, when do I start to fill out that fast?  Do I wait? So I've already been accepted to a college or is there a certain amount of time before school starts that this needs to be applied for?  

Dr. Young: Okay, only graduating seniors can do a FAFSA application. So my advice to parents in the students 11th, 10th, 11th grade year is to start thinking about what potential schools you want to go to making sure that your tax information is done properly to ensure parents have their FAFSA ID as well as password done because you will need a username and a password, just as a student will in order to make sure that your FAFSA is complete. So collecting all of those documents and making sure those things are done prior to senior year is important. So you will not be able to fill out your FAFSA until the Department of Education opens it up. Previously, before this new shiny application, it was October 1. But this year, the application will not open until December 1. So make sure that you are talking to your guidance counselors, make sure that you are getting information, you are following the Department of Education on Facebook, Instagram, all of those things for the latest information. 

Tia: Thank you for that. Mr. Lanus, can you talk a little bit about the dual enrollment program with the school system and then maybe touch on how it is that we are preparing students to be able to prepare to fill out the FAFSA for giving assistance to their families. 

Dadrius: Absolutely. The best way to describe our dual enrollment system as it currently stands is that it's literally a cheat code. It's exciting for me because it's one of the things that I talked about throughout wanting to join the school board is to see us advance opportunities for students. If it was the history behind doing enrollment inside of our school system, literally about three years ago, we had about 400 students who were either in dual enrollment or AP courses, and if you know anything about AP courses or advanced placement courses those are the ones that you have to pay for, which a lot of the families inside of our system, just currently, they didn't have the funding to do so understanding our our unique system of students who fall below the poverty line and those families that also do have the same level of circumstances since then, we have not only built connectivity and pathways throughout our school system, but we've also been able to build connectivity with all of our local institutions, which is BRCC, Southern University, LSU, something we have never done before. And then since that time, we have over 6,000 students who are currently on path. It's important for our students to be prepared to not only be enrolled in dual enrollment, but also graduate by the time they graduate from high school, they'll have an associate's degree in one hand and a diploma in the other hand. It breaks so many different barriers across our city, but it also prepares us for the next level as well. So understanding that we have that level of students or that many students going through the dual enrollment system or dual enrollment process throughout our school system, it's thoroughly important that FAFSA is taken care of and that they also understand. The processes that they have to do and all of the deadlines that come along with it as well. 

Tia: So let me ask you this. When a student is able to be dually enrolled, is there a cost associated with them to attend that institution or what does that look like for them? 

Dadrius: No, ma'am. The East Baton Rouge Parish school system takes on the cost of paying for the dual enrollment courses, the instructors, anything that is associated with LSU, BRCC, or Southern University in terms of dual enrollment, we take on that cost for those students.

Tia: Okay. Outside there's a few questions in the chat. One asks what percentage of students are pursuing secondary education versus the number pursuing school to work programs that don't require that you have to explain to me on school or what a school to work program is. 

Dadrius: Basically, our pathways programs that we currently have bright futures and what we essentially have 5 different pathways and we put students aligned or rolling. To ensure that they go down on a pathway that makes sense for them and their families as well as their careers. I can't answer the percentage question offhand, but I know it's some of the things that we're currently trying to aggregate right now outside of our system to get a better approach of how many students are utilizing these processes and utilizing the alignment either to dual enrollment or going down a career pathway. But that's a good question. Thank you for it. 

Tia: Thank you for answering. This next question is for you Dr. Young from our friends at LORI. She asks, what is the best way to advise immigrant students that are coming into the state? In the 11th and 12th grade for the FAFSA application. Do they have to be a full citizen in order to receive funds? 

Dr. Young: You have to be a full citizen in order to receive FAFSA. But there are a lot of opportunities granted to immigrants through the Dream Act. So I would advise students to contact their guidance counselors to see if they have any information or to do an open Google search or find someone like me, an educational consultant who can actually help them one on one to find the resources. But there are resources out there. 

Marcela Hernandez: I'm sorry. Can I just jump and clarify the question?  

Tia: That's okay. Go ahead, Marcela. 

Marcela: Thank you. So my question is not for those that are with a pending status, but let's say that it's a resident, a student or a citizen student that is just arriving into the country in 11th or 12th grade. In terms of that deadline that you were just mentioning, what if they come a little too late? After the application time has been over. 

Dr. Young: Okay, so my advice would be to reach out to the school. If the student has a particular college that they're interested in there may be funding available for them. That way,  schools have the advantage of being able to give scholarships and to give money to students based on academics. And but for the FAFSA, there's no way for that, but there is funds out there. So you would have to do a little bit more research in order to find those funds, but it is something there for those students. 

Tia: I'm assuming that answered her question. Mr. Lanus, if a student fails a dual enrollment course, does it affect their admission chances with the college?  

Dadrius: No. And in fact, there are certain procedures in terms of doing enrollment where it doesn't even go on their transcript. I know that was some of the questions that a lot of parents asked in terms of failing courses. And let's say a student does fail a course. And many of our  institutions, our four year institutions, they have what they call repeat and delete, which was, you could take that course again, and the weight of the lower grade does not affect your transcript, and it does not affect your GPA, your overall GPA.

Tia: Okay. And I know I'm reaching across the board here. And one aspect we're looking at it from a K to 12 perspective on dual enrollment. And then on the, when it comes to FAFSA plan, I think about continuing education with maybe some adult learners. What space say, for instance, if you have a student that is getting ready to graduate, right? That's the senior year. They may not have been engaged in dual enrollment. Systems in place as a school system have to try to connect them still with educational opportunities. That wasn't taken advantage of in their previous years. 

Dadrius: So I think that's a great question. I think that's an excellent question. And that's the reason why we engaged and created the Pathways to Bright Futures program, because it's designed uniquely, just as you just said. There may be some students who either haven't heard about the dual enrollment process, or they just may not want to be involved in it, or they may opt not to want to do it. And if they do choose to do there is other alternatives, such as finding a pathway of finding a unique career space using our five different areas of focus to try to make sure that we get that student caught up to speed and engaged so that they are not, they don't fall behind and they don't miss that level of opportunity. 

Tia: There's a few questions in the chat. One is asking what are the programs for students reading on grade level?

Dadrius: Is it reading on grade level or not reading on grade level? 

Ava: This is Ava. I sent that question, not reading on grade level. Thank you. 

Dadrius: Okay, no problem. That's one of the main focuses that you see happening, not just inside of the school system, but also around the state. There's been an increased focus on what we call high dosage tutoring and that happens in the classroom while learning is taking place, doing pull outs while learning is taking place or after school. And it's not the same level of tutoring that you see, just with a student and an instructor. This is specialized customized, personalized learning with students who are either civilly behind on grade level at least one or two grades behind. And this is something that we're not only utilizing the side of our school system, we've taken a more in depth approach to understand how many students need interventions inside of our classrooms. 

Tia: Oh, the question, the chat box is hot for you as far as answering questions. There Reverend Anderson states there are a significant number of students that our justice impacted whether their themselves have been had issues or if their family members are children in the juvenile justice system eligible to participate in dual enrollment programs. 

Dadrius: So that's not a question I can ask right now, but I think it's a very good question and it's something that I would definitely push as a school board member. I will say that we have made a more concerted effort in terms of what we do inside of our juvenile justice program at Ryan's Detention Center. Just actually, we graduated one of our first students since we have been connected and partnering with the juvenile detention system here in East Baton Rouge Parish. But, as the law provides, you have to provide those students with every single opportunity that you would provide a student that attends a traditional school and we're going to see and see to it and make sure that we do again, I can't answer that offhand, but it is something that I definitely will look into because it's a great question that was asked. 

Tia:  Okay. And I guess that just makes me think if there is a situation where a child is engaged or a learner is engaged in something else, they got the school and they actually have to be detained and they're out of school for a moment. How does the school system keep track of that student while they're out? I don't even know how I want to pair that question. I guess like what type of supportive service, like if a student is for whatever reason being detained in a juvenile center let's say for two weeks, does the school system have something in place to where they're making sure that student is receiving their homework or receiving the extra tutor, whatever type of, resources that they need as it relates to their school work. Is there a system in place for that?  

Dadrius: I would say before there wasn't a system in place for that, but since our new superintendent has come online, that's been something that he has been very intentional about is making sure that we do intense monitoring around students who need interventions, whether that's a student that is either a few weeks behind in school or a student that is a several months behind in schools in terms of school work. As whether the longer student is not in school, the further they fall behind. And if you look across our state, what you find is the information that you see also doing the design of what happens inside of districts like East Baton Rouge Parish as it currently stands, about 50 percent of our students are not on grade level in terms of literacy. That's one of the main focuses that we're trying, that we are taking a more intense approach. And I use the word intense very. I emphasize the word intense because it is something that we are putting steadfast in front of us in terms of literacy.  

Tia: I have one more question in chat, and then I'll have a question for you Dr. Young. How are we making sure that our young people still have a space to be young people while they navigate increasing pressure to achieve educational and career milestones?  An example, college level courses, associate degrees at younger and younger ages. While the goal is always going to be educational excellence, what is it that we do as a community or can do as a community to make sure that a child is still able to enjoy their childhood without the pressures of You need to go to college and get a degree or you need to learn a trade and make some money and take care of your family, what, however that goes at a conversation is for, different people. 

Dadrius: Oh, so let me say this from a school system. This is a dual answer question. I think for the school system side, our job is to make sure that where there is an opportunity and access follows for every single child and it has to be equal across the board to ensure that opportunities make sense for students so that they don't leave out of our school system or so they don't leave our state. But I think on the other side, the single most important thing that our students need right now is parental guidance. The parent has to be just as invested, just as involved in school, if not more, because at the end of the day, that child is your investment. Yes, you trust that child to come to our school system and get everything that they can get, but we need to make sure and ensure, rather, that parents are invested and that parents show up and that they are engaged. Some of the things you see when you turn on the television, it almost gives our community a black eye, and what we want to see is we want to see parents more engaged. We want to see them involved in their students lives. A lot of the conversations that we're having around college, those are parental based conversations as well. Now, don't get me wrong, a student can talk to the guidance counselor all day long, but the parent knows what is best for their child because that is their child. And I just want to see that we get more engaged and have those kind of conversations around what is parental training courses look like? How do we get more involved inside of what's happening inside of the home? There's only so much that a teacher can do in the school system within an eight hour school day. That student still has to go home and be inside of the four walls of their home, the protection of their home. So we have to also just be more connected as a community to know what's happening inside of their home, just as we know what's happening inside of our school system. 

Tia: Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Young? 

Dr. Young: Speaking of, can I piggyback a little bit on what Dadrius said? I totally agree with the parent assessment. As a middle school parent myself, I find myself trusting him more to do more things, and I'm more hands off.  And being an educator, I see what they can do when you're more hands off because it's like we believe the older they get, the more they can do, but we still need to stay engaged because I will find myself saying, okay, what is he doing today? I need to log onto the student progress center, figure out what's going on. But I see it every day while working with students around the state. Parents are saying they're 17 or they're 16. They know how to go to school and do their homework. I don't need to be as involved, but we do need to stress more parental involvement. The older they get, the more they do need us because they are now making decisions that can affect their entire lives. So yes, I 100 percent agree that family engagement is something that we need to focus a lot on figuring out how we can connect parents and households to the school systems to make sure that children are successful across the board, not just graduating and going out into the community, graduating, becoming productive citizens, being able to do it. Grow this community in a positive way. 

Tia: So I have a student and they're unsure on whether or not they want to go to college or or even how to navigate that system. How do I connect them with college tours? Do I reach out to the university myself? Are there services that you provide? Dr. Young? Is there something that the school system is invested in terms of scheduling a college tours here in this in our city? 

Dr. Young: You can definitely reach out to the schools. That is not something of service that we provide the college tools, but we definitely can connect you with people on campus who can help you with those college tours. I'm also providing information. Students are on social media for everything except for what they need to be on there for. So they are, you can do virtual tours. There are virtual tours to every school you can think of if they want to find out something about the school, they can definitely reach out to recruiters. Recruiters have Snapchat and Instagram and those sorts of things. So if you are really interested, you can find it there. But if there is some information that my organization can help students with, we definitely will connect soon. I think it's important for us to bring the schools and students together to make sure that they have the information that they need. And not only just four year schools, the two year schools, the technical schools, the proprietary schools, I think it's important to say that as we talk about education, it doesn't seem like we're only talking about four year schools, definitely community colleges. We have a lot of students who want to go into real estate. That's a big thing. Now they're thinking about how do I get into real estate, becoming a beautician or a barber. Those professions are honorable professions. People want to go into those. So we need to make sure that we're providing outlets for students to be able to have access to that information. Not every student wants to go to a traditional four year school. So providing access to that, I think is very important. And I do apply EBR schools for having opportunities. I work with students who parents reach out to me and they have EBR. Tons of opportunities to do a lot of trades and just get that information. Graduating from high school with an associate's degree is a huge thing. I think if that would have been something for me 20 years ago, I would have definitely taken advantage of it. They heard me y'all to say 20 years ago. But that is definitely something that is an advantage to the student because you can definitely walk into a college being a sophomore or a junior. That's huge and have no debts. The debt part is the important part because I meet hundreds of students who tell me they simply don't want to go because they're watching what debt did to their parents or their aunts or their uncles and they're seeing it on the news every day like we're fighting about student loan payment and things like that. So that's really something that's on their mind. They're more informed than we ever could have been because they have more access to information. So yeah, if there's anything that we can do to help, we are definitely here for that. 

Tia: Thank you for that. Morgan has a question surrounding how are we considering the whole student life and basic care skills? There's a bigger push with our kids. But what about the rest of the students? Okay. I'm trying to understand the question. There's a bigger push with our kids. But what about the rest of the students? How are we preparing them for mental health wise for the stress of higher ed and entering the workforce? Can someone speak on any ICARE initiatives around this? So I think the question is surrounding as we put an emphasis on dual enrollment or making sure that the student has opportunities for growth, whether it's education or workforce training. What things are we doing as a community, as a school system, as organizations to support their mental health on what comes with.

Dadrius: So I guess I'll jump into this right here. If you don't mind Dr. Young in terms because I heard ICARE typically deals with trauma based issues whenever there is a loss. But also I want to remind people how ICARE came to be in existence. It was about substance abuse and drugs that were happening inside of schools. So there's a unique level of differentiation between, when you talk about college based trauma versus the kind of trauma that a lot of those students deal with inside of the community. But in terms of that, one of the things we have done is we have put more social work inside of schools. That's one of the things that we're looking at right now is connecting students and connecting the problems that we see, the trauma that we see happen on a regular basis out of schools and making sure that students have every single opportunity there. But I think that, I'll come back to something I said earlier. We have to be able to involve parents more from that level as well. So they understand. You know what? The things that their students are going through because for a lot of our students, if you could imagine a lot of these conversations aren't happening at home and what they're not happening at home, you have to ask yourself, where are they happening? And by the time a student, so by the time the school receives it, sometimes it's a little, it's on a tail end where it's harder to help you reach that child. So being able to create an ecosystem where the parent, the school and the child are equally involved inside of the situation or equally involved in what's happening with that child in terms of those processes, that has to be key and keen in what we try to focus on inside of our school system. A lot of times it's hard because we have to also remember how many students we're dealing with versus how many employees we're dealing with and how much time throughout the regular day we're dealing with. We have to try to help resolve a lot of the issues that we deal with. A lot of the things that we're talking about, we have to be more intense because as I said before, making sure that we can see if we can increase what I would call home visits, being able to go to those homes, understand what those kids are going through. Even if you're not meeting them at the home, having some level of direction of what you meet with them outside of the four walls of the school. To be honest with you, eight hours is not enough time throughout the day to deal with all the issues, the pain and trauma that a lot of our kids go through. And when you intensify that by 42,000 students, that's a daunting job when you think about it at the end of the day. And there's only so much that you can get done, but that doesn't mean that we cannot get it.  A lot of the times we have to also receive the questions. Are we receiving today on this call? And that helps us to help us to alleviate some of the problems that may occur in the future. 

Tia: Thank you. So Cola says, do we understand what parents are going through? It's so easy to say what parents should do without recognizing their capacity to do it. And I guess this is like a question. It could be a question for both Mr. Lanus and Dr. Young, as I know, Dr. Young provides services to help a parent and a student navigate what it is like entering into the college. But what is it? How do we lessen the burden on the parent who may not have the resources or may not have the digital access to fully support their child? 

Dr. Young: I believe by actually having those resources, having the guidance counselors, schools employing people like me educational consultants to come in and work directly with students and parents, because someone said in the chat about the poverty level. So if I don't know how to do something, I'm going to go find someone who can help. For me, I work primarily in areas that are low income. There's not a high college graduation percentage in those areas. I work with parents to help them give their children what they are looking for, whether it is to help them fill out a job application correctly or resume or to do some interview training. So they'll be able go out and get a job and be able to have eye contact with the person and shake their hands and things like that. Also, just making sure that if you want your child to attend some level of post secondary community college, having those conversations. Everyone was so excited that FAFSA was no longer a requirement, but it made me sad because it allowed me to be able to have those conversations with every student that I could touch. Whether they wanted to go to school or not, doing the FAFSA application gave them an opportunity to know that they can attend some sort of schooling in order to have information. I do think that sometimes we don't think about the plight of parents. I am a parent myself. So I understand how hard it is. I'm traveling. I'm working. I have kids one 4 and one 12. So we're all over the place. But just knowing that we are there. Parents should know that the school system is there. The guidance counselors are there. The principals. We're all here listening to what you need. I think there they just need to just let us know what it is that they need because we are here to help. I work with parents every day. I'm working 7 o'clock at night on zoom calls to help students who have already graduated from high schools that I've worked with. They've come back to say, Dr Young, can you help me? Because you were nice to me. You explained it to me. Can you please help me? I am no longer getting anything from that, but a great feeling. I enjoyed the work that I do, and I'm sure most educators enjoy the work that we do. So we are here to help. So if parents need help, I just think saying more of what you need and allowing us to help you and not see our comments as judgment or anything, but know that we are really here to help the students be the best. We are all a community. We're here for everybody to be their best. 

Dadrius: Yeah. And if I'm sorry. I, and I don't, I would be remiss if I did not repeat what Dr. Young just said this, A lot of the comments that we're talking about today is not to talk down to parents in any shape or form. We, without you all, we are not a school system. We do not exist. But I think a lot of the questions, or a lot of the answers that we're saying is that we need your help. In order to become a better school system, we need to know what the problems are, what the problems exist, because we are trying to serve so many different students and so many families who come with different types of issues, not the most issues, but they come with different trauma, they come with different wants, they come with different needs, and understanding that we have to understand as an ecosystem, as a team, as a partnership, how can we better serve you. We know we haven't done the best things in the past. But the only way that we can get better, the only way that we can improve is if we have an equal footing and being able to say and be honest with each other and have conversations with each other that makes sense for not only our school system so we can get better direction. And the leadership and the success of our students and how they would touch.  

Tia: Thank you. Some of the greatest issues sometimes are the lack of comprehensive and  accurate information of guiding counselors particularly for vulnerable students with specific needs immigrants, justice impacted those experiencing homelessness. I know we keep speaking on making sure that we know that the resource exists. How can organizations that provide guidance and resources to families outside of the school system? How is it that we can build a relationship with the school system to making sure that we're able to advocate for the needs and resources that we feel are not being addressed to the student or to the parent initially? 

Dadrius: I think this is an amazing question. Just as we have, a conversation like this with the One Rouge call that you all do, you do a phenomenal job of getting there's also something that we have inside of EBR, which is called BRAYN, the Baton Rouge Youth Network. And before we started two years ago, two and a half years ago I want to say that we probably had about 10 non-profit organizations around Baton Rouge who participated. But since we have beyond, but since we have begun to have those community based conversations, much like this one right here, we now have over 300 non-profit organizations that are helping us inside of our schools and have amazing programs and other unique opportunities that are helping to advance those families who have needs and who also have concerns. So I would say please join the BRAYN Network. You can go to our website at ebrschools.org and you can go find all the information that concerns BRAYN. And I would say any non profits who's on here today, please go sign up. And even if you are a parent, or if you're just looking for information, you can go look it up on our website and go and find all the unique things that happen inside of our BRAYN network. 

Tia: Thank you for that. Not that I can forget about BRAYN, but that's I'm glad that you highlight it because when I think about so many organizations and so many coalitions that we're doing, we're all doing the same work and sometimes it overlaps. And people may say that the resources are not there, but it is, it's just a matter of how we communicate that information to each other. And making sure we're not taking resources, but we should be collaborating that process. I have a one, one last question and then we can jump into community announcements. Dr. Young, I am a parent that myself is either in college or I have college debt. How does that and I have a minor student that's getting ready to enter into college. How does that affect their impact for funding with FAFSA if I myself am in debt or don't have yeah, I'm in debt. 

Tia: Okay. I'm in debt too. There is no effect on the student for the parents. So the student, when they complete a FAFSA, that is their Pell grant that is their loans. You only have to provide your tax information because the student is not technically an adult for the Department of Education until they're 24. So you will have to put your information on the FAFSA for them, your tax information, but your debt does not affect them. I also had someone text me to ask me to mention something about the FAFSA, but in college applications, you do not have to wait until you're accepted into a school to complete the FAFSA. I want to make sure that message is no, as soon as the application opens up December 1st, you can complete the fast, but you do not have to wait on an acceptance letter. In order to do it, you need to make sure that you apply to college as soon as possible because the earlier the better. Their priority deadlines for colleges. Your kids want to go to school. Make sure you know the priority deadlines because a lot of the applications  are the applications for scholarships as well. But make sure you can fill out as soon as possible. 

Tia: I appreciate you. First, I want to say thank you to you and Mr. Lanus for taking the time to join the call and sharing space with us as we get ready to enter into this new FAFSA season. The 1st, a part of community announcements is coming up. Next week, we will have all of our virtual coalition meetings on Tuesday, starting with the education to career. So this is a conversation. If we want to continue, that platform would be the best space to do it. If we can see how it is as a community partners, we can build more access around furthering education, supporting opportunity youth and so forth. I do want to open up the space for anyone to come off of you and share their community announcements for this weekend. Y'all have that space. And or drop them in the chat. And if they're okay. All right. I'm hearing none. I will just go ahead and reiterate that the Neighborhood Connection event is going to be held tomorrow at the Raising Cane's River Center, implore everyone to go ahead and get to know their neighbor and see what resources are available. If no one has any. 

Tia: Go ahead. 

Flitcher Bell: Yeah, I think Marcela had her hand up. 

Tia: Oh, okay. Thank you for bringing that to me. I didn't see it. Marcela. Go ahead. 

Marcela: Hi, I just want to invite everyone to today's One Community dialogue. We're going to be having it from 5 to 6:30pm via zoom. I'm about to drop the link in the chat. There's a link in the chat. We're going to be talking about access to public education integration, so we're going to have some amazing guest speakers and Tia’s actually going to be one of the co facilitators, so I really hope that you guys can join us tonight and learn a little bit more about this education integration. Thank you guys. 

Tia: Thank you so much for that, Marcela. Okay if there aren't any other community announcements, just want you guys to be mindful of the information shared in the beginning of the call around supporting our neighborhood communities in storm restoration, making sure that we're connected and checking on our friends and family at this time. And if nothing else, I say happy Friday to you guys. Thank you for joining the call and I will see you next weekend with Marcela as we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month. And I look forward to it. Bye everyone.

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