PROGRAM WILL HELP KIDS STAY OUT OF TROUBLE

Starting this school year, some Pine Belt public schools plan to
offer a program administrators hope will keep youthful miscreants
from becoming youthful felons.

The Youth Development Initiative will receive referrals from schools,
the youth court or district parents, said Alan Oubre, Hattiesburg
schools executive director of support services.

"When they find out a child is slipping toward delinquency, it's a
diversion program," he said. "They counsel (the children), provide
community services and even get into mediation."

The program will begin in Hattiesburg and Petal public schools in the
upcoming school year. Petal Schools Superintendent James Hutto said
his district is working on coordinating the program's launch.

David Rothbart, director of Court Programs Inc., the Gulfport-based
private corporation that is pioneering the program, said similar
efforts were launched more than two years ago in George County and
later expanded to Greene County.

The local program, he said, will be slightly different - the Greene
and George county programs rely solely on referrals for children
already involved in the Youth Court.

"In talking with the (Forrest County) Youth Court, we found out what
areas the schools were having problems with - from truancy to
fighting to drug use," Rothbart said.

"They're not things that were felony charges that would mandatorily
go to Youth Court, but there were really no educational options
available to (at-risk) kids."

Forrest County Schools Superintendent Kay Clay said she wasn't
familiar with the program, but said she'd be interested in learning
more about it. Forrest County Agricultural High School district
officials didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

The initiative's work focuses on making children aware that there are
consequences for their actions, Rothbart said. The initiative will
have specific responsibilities for children that could include
counseling, community service, house arrest or simply bringing
homework to an initiative counselor for review.

In all cases, he said, parents are involved.

"We're making parents responsible for their kids," Rothbart said.
"That's one of the problems we have - sometimes parents don't want to
take responsibility for their kids, and they want the school to be
the parents."

Compliance isn't optional.

The program is written into the Hattiesburg public schools'
newly-revised disciplinary code, Rothbart said, and children who are
referred to the program must participate to continue attending school
in the district.

Oubre said the district has three or four referrals ready for the
program. And Rothbart said he expects to average about 15-20 students
in the program at any given time.

Participation and compliance in Greene and George counties has been
high - about 90 percent of youths referred to the program fully
participate and comply with program requirements.

But Rothbart said the program hasn't tracked success in terms of how
many participants stay out of Youth Court. Students referred to the
program in those counties are already involved with the court.

He said tracking those statistics will be part of any programs
launched in Forrest County.

Parents are involved in the program in another important way,
Rothbart said - the program is parent-funded, at $15 for every
session the child attends with an initiative counselor.

The program isn't a moneymaker; Rothbart said he's not expecting to
break even. Funding comes from more profitable adult offender
counseling programs his company operates across the country.

Oubre and Rothbart said the initiative is a program with potential
for great change in the area.

"I hope it will reduce delinquency and associated things that will
improve attendance," Oubre said. "It's one of many things we're using
to help our kids."