A. (1)  The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, in collaboration with the Louisiana Juvenile Justice Planning and Coordination Board, shall formulate, develop, and recommend to the Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Commission by March 1, 2004, a model master plan for improving behavior and discipline within schools.

• (2)  The model master plan may include but need not be limited to guidelines for accomplishing the following:
• (a)  Improving communication, coordination, and collaboration between the schools and juvenile justice agencies.
• (b)  Improving safe school planning.
• (c)  Revising school zero tolerance policies to ensure compliance with all applicable provisions of law to ensure that schools do not make inappropriate referrals to juvenile justice agencies.
• (d)  Providing improved mental health services in or through the schools.
• (e)  Providing better assistance to parents in knowing about and accessing family strengthening programs.
• (f)  Improving the coordination of special education and juvenile justice services.
• (g)  Improving classroom management using positive behavioral supports and other effective disciplinary tools.
• (h)  Improving methods and procedures for the handling of school suspensions, the referral of students to alternative schools, and the use of seclusion and physical restraint in addressing challenging student behavior.
• (i)  Providing for better and more useful reporting on an annual basis of school behavioral and disciplinary problems.

The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall direct the state superintendent of education to convene, on a quarterly basis, a meeting of representatives of appropriate public and private, state and local agencies to discuss ways and means of coordinating policies to encourage, foster, and promote expanded parental and family involvement in the learning of their children and in the life of the schools. Each year, not later than sixty days prior to the regular session of the legislature, the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall submit to the governor and to the House and Senate Committees on Education a report, based on the discussions held at the quarterly meetings conducted by the state superintendent of education, which shall identify the problems, if any, that state and local agencies are having in increasing the participation and involvement of parents in the learning of their children and in the life of the schools, the suggestions and recommendations that were made to improve such participation and involvement, and the superintendent’s and board’s response to these suggestions and recommendations.

The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall develop and issue necessary and appropriate rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this Part. Such rules and regulations shall include but need not be limited to a requirement that the state Department of Education, each city and parish school board, and each public elementary and secondary school identify a person or persons who shall serve as a parental advocate for the respective school, school board, or state agency. It shall be the function of each such parental advocate to develop and encourage positive means for increasing parental and family involvement and participation in the process of learning by children and in the life of the schools, to listen to and seek to resolve complaints made by parents and families against the respective school, school board, or state agency, and to assist the administrators and other employees of the respective school, school board, and state agency to improve communication and coordination with parents and families.

The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall require the state superintendent of education to establish, within the existing organizational structure of the state Department of Education, a clearinghouse of parental involvement. The clearinghouse shall gather, organize, and disseminate information from throughout the nation and state on research, laws, model applications, methods, and other strategies relating to parental and family involvement and participation in the learning of children and in the life of the schools.

A. The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, through the state superintendent of education and state Department of Education, is hereby authorized to make demonstration grants and to provide other forms of state assistance to city and parish school boards and to other appropriate public and private agencies for the development of innovative and promising family-school educational partnership activities designed to: (1) Support the efforts of families, including training, to the maximum extent practicable, to work with children in the home both to attain the instructional objective of the schools and to instill positive attitudes about the importance of education and learning in the life of the child. (2) Train teachers and other staff personnel to work effectively as educational partners with the families of participating students. (3) Train families, teachers, and other staff personnel in the schools to build an educational partnership between home and school. (4) Evaluate how well family involvement activities of the school are working, what barriers exist to greater participation, and what steps are needed to be taken to expand participation in such family involvement activities. (5) Purchase or develop courseware, software, communication aids, equipment, or materials relating to increasing the involvement and participation of families in the learning of children or in the life of the schools. (6) Provide family learning or other community education courses in which families, together, may learn reading, math, and other subjects. B. The provisions of this Section shall be applicable only to the extent that funds are made available for this purpose from public or private sources.