Article written by Adeline Fields
What do you do when over half of the students in your parish are considered truant?
For the team at East Baton Rouge’s Family and Youth Service Center, the answer is simple: you roll up your sleeves and get to work.
With 9 acres, 14 buildings, and 17 partner agencies on site in the heart of Baton Rouge, the Family and Youth Service Center (FYSC) connects families and individuals with the resources they need to stabilize, recover, and succeed. Though they focus heavily on reengaging truant students and returning them to school, the center’s reach extends far beyond attendance.
The FYSC provides services for people experiencing homelessness, addiction, abuse, domestic violence, trauma, or the effects of human trafficking. Additionally, they offer resources for immigration and mental health support, tutoring, parenting classes, food assistance, and financial literacy and life skills education.
Roxson Welsh, Director of the FYSC, says that when you go to the center, all of their services are offered through close collaboration with the agencies located on campus.
“The whole idea is when you walk in, you don’t need to walk anyplace else. You don’t need to call any place else. If it’s something we don’t have, we’ll pick up the phone for you and call for you. Whatever agency you walk to, I can assure you they are going to hook you with whatever agency you actually need—because sometimes you don’t have a clue what you need… If they walk into our doors, quite often it’s because they’ve reached the end. This is one of their worst moments. And we really want it to be a way to where they can start seeing light.”
Welsh’s words reflect a painful truth: by the time families find their way to the FYSC, many are already in crisis. For thousands of students in East Baton Rouge Parish, that crisis first shows in the form of chronic absences from school.
According to the Louisiana Department of Education, East Baton Rouge has faced an alarming rise in truancy rates over the last two decades. Under state law, a student is considered truant after five or more unexcused absences or tardies in a single semester.
From 2011 to 2022, the parish’s truancy rate nearly doubled from 31.9% to 60.7%. Since 2022, that number has started to decline, with most recent data from the 2023-2024 school year showing the truancy rate sitting at 55.2%.
Behind those absences are struggling families facing difficult realities. As of February 2025, the state Department of Education reported that 79.6% of all students in EBR Parish schools are considered economically disadvantaged.
That’s exactly where the Family and Youth Service Center steps in.
By addressing the deeper issues that keep students out of the classroom—whether it’s housing instability, trauma, tighter finances, or untreated mental health challenges—the FYSC is working to turn those numbers around. Their team doesn’t just track down truant students; they ask why those students aren’t showing up in the first place, and then connect them and their families with support.
In many cases, it’s about survival. And for some students, having someone at the FYSC notice they’re hurting is the first step in feeling seen and supported again. Welsh recalled one family with several daughters who had not been attending school. With help from the FYSC, that family got the support they needed—and the results were striking.
“By the end of that school year, all of those girls had come up to grade level. Every single one of those girls had come up to grade level. Do you realize what this community would have lost?”
To be able to keep serving East Baton Rouge Parish, the FYSC relies on rent payments from partner agencies that lease space on their Government Street campus. Welsh explains that the property is owned by the state, and the center can use it as long as they maintain it—allowing them to keep rent prices low for their partners who help sustain the FYSC’s mission.
“The funding comes from very inexpensive lease payments of $1.50 per square foot per month that pays for all things. Because we need them there. We need services there. Now, you can’t just locate there and get great rent prices—you have to actually fill the need for families. And so we’re cautious about who comes, but that pays our expenses.”
That model—keeping costs low while ensuring every agency on campus directly serves families—allows the FYSC to stay focused on what matters most: the people walking through their doors.
Every time a student returns to school or a family finds stability, the Family and Youth Service Center is fulfilling its mission. And because no appointment is needed, that first step toward change can happen the moment someone is ready—all they have to do is walk through the door.
Listen to “The EBR Family and Youth Service Center Is Bringing Students Back to School” on Spreaker.