This section creates an Incentive Award Program and requires the responsible department to run it, set standards and data procedures, publish annual progress reports, identify at least ten high-progress parishes, and give awards to the ten selected parish school systems.
§460.7. Incentive Award Program; dropout reduction; teen pregnancy reduction NOTE: Subsection A eff. until Oct. 1, 2027. See Acts 2025, No. 478. A. The Department of Children and Family Services in consultation with the Department of Education shall develop and implement a special program, the Incentive Award Program, whereby the governing authority of a parish and a parish school system may receive a financial award for reducing the teen pregnancy rate and dropout rate for the parish. NOTE: Subsection A as amended by Acts 2025, No. 478, eff. Oct. 1, 2027. A. Louisiana Works in consultation with the Department of Education shall develop and implement a special program, the Incentive Award Program, whereby the governing authority of a parish and a parish school system may receive a financial award for reducing the teen pregnancy rate and dropout rate for the parish. B. The department, in developing this program, shall: (1) Develop and define the standards to be used to measure progress. (2) Develop the procedure to be used to collect relevant data to be used to determine progress. (3) Require that the data collected be compiled into an annual progress report which ranks each parish relative to the progress made by the parish in the relevant categories and provide for the delivery of said report to each school, parish governing authority, and parish school system in the state. (4) Provide for the annual identification of at least ten parishes which have made the most significant progress in the past year and which will be eligible for the financial award. NOTE: Subsection C eff. until Oct. 1, 2027. See Acts 2025, No. 478. C. Through the Incentive Award Program, the department shall provide a financial award to each of the ten parishes identified in the annual progress report which have demonstrated the most significant reduction in dropout rates, as defined by rule of the Department of Education, and in teen pregnancy rates as defined by rule of the Department of Children and Family Services. The financial award shall be distributed to such ten parish school systems. These awards may be expended by the parish school system to implement innovative community-based and school-based programs designed to further reduce the dropout rate and the teen pregnancy rate for the parish and for instructional enhancement programs. NOTE: Subsection C as amended by Acts 2025, No. 478, eff. Oct. 1, 2027. C. Through the Incentive Award Program, the department shall provide a financial award to each of the ten parishes identified in the annual progress report that have demonstrated the most significant reduction in dropout rates, as defined by rule of the Department of Education, and in teen pregnancy rates as defined by rule of Louisiana Works. The financial award shall be distributed to the ten parish school systems. These awards may be expended by the parish school system to implement innovative community-based and school-based programs designed to further reduce the dropout rate and the teen pregnancy rate for the parish and for instructional enhancement programs. D. No award shall be granted through the Incentive Award Program until such time as the state of Louisiana receives a financial bonus award from the federal government provided for in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which provides for awards to the five states that have demonstrated the largest net decrease in the rate of out-of-wedlock births. Acts 1997, No. 510, §1; Acts 2025, No. 478, §13, eff. Oct. 1, 2027.