Educational Accountability and Rehabilitation Act
In 2016, Louisiana enacted the Educational Accountability and Rehabilitation Act to include standards for oversight, accountability, and quality control of educational services within juvenile justice facilities. This act, which amends a portion of the previously existing Children’s Code of Louisiana, allows for the development of a specialized school performance score calculation system and school report card to use in assessing student achievement in juvenile justice schools. The act also calls for the creation of an accountability team specifically to assess and monitor juvenile justice schools’ progress in a number of areas, including credit accumulation, graduation readiness, and student growth in reading and math. It also includes a provision for accurate reporting of student discipline information within juvenile justice schools. The act notes that the accountability team should be multidisciplinary and include representatives from the state education division and the office of juvenile justice, experts on education in detention settings and alternative education in community settings, and a representative for the children and families.