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Natchitoches Parish reports drop in student absences, mandates social‑emotional lessons and introduces Satchel Pulse screening
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Eloy credited student services with reducing average student absences from 14.2 to 10 per year and announced district plans to require two social‑emotional lessons per student and deploy Satchel Pulse screeners and suicide‑prevention activities.
NATCHITOCHES, La. — The Natchitoches Parish School Board was told the district reduced average student absences from 14.2 days per student last year to 10 days this year, now 1.6 days below the state average of 11.6, and that the district is adopting broader social‑emotional screening and instruction to support students.
"We are now at 10 absences per student in this district," Superintendent Dr. Eloy told the board during his report, crediting the student services team and Director of Student Services Felicia Pinkney for focused efforts. "I have to give a special shout out to Lakeview because they had the largest change from, I believe, something like 14 something absences to 9 point something absences per student," he added.
Dr. Eloy said the reduction came from both fewer very high‑absence students and improvements across the broader student body: "...even the kids who are missing 4 or 5 days before we're now seeing that they're missing 2 or 3."
To build on that progress, the board heard that the district is implementing a new social‑emotional learning (SEL) workflow. Dr. Eloy said the district will "mandate 2 social emotional lessons for every student at every school, every grade level moving forward." Staff described deployment of Satchel Pulse, an electronic screener and SEL curriculum tool, that will be administered multiple times per year and will include lessons for classrooms.
"It is... a screener that aligns to some degree with social, emotional well‑being," Director of Student Services Felicia Pinkney said, describing the tool as an indicator of student well‑being that will inform follow‑up support. Pinkney and other staff also noted that suicide prevention month activities and staff training will continue; the district will assign board members access to the vector suicide‑prevention training referenced by staff.
Board members asked practical questions about consent and use. Pinkney said the screener will generate data at student, grade and school levels and that some parental‑notification and opt‑in/opt‑out elements are subject to state rules; she also said the tool includes embedded lessons that can be used during homeroom periods. "If you see red flags on that, that's an indicator that they perhaps have some social, emotional, or mental health issues," Pinkney said, describing the screener as a signal that warrants further evaluation and support rather than a clinical diagnosis.
Dr. Eloy said the district plans to publish an attendance dashboard on social media to show community progress by school. He also said student services will continue targeted work on the highest‑absence students, noting significant drops in students with very high absence totals.
No board action was taken; staff presented the data and described planned implementation steps for screening, SEL lessons and suicide‑prevention outreach.
