The Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development

Former Superintendent Of Education Cecil Picard Honored - Monday, November 12, 2007

COLUMBUS, OH – Former State Superintendent of Education Cecil J. Picard was recognized by his peers across the country on Friday night during the Council of Chief State School Officers’ (CCSSO) Annual Policy Forum and Business Meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Picard’s family accepted the Council’s most prestigious award, the Distinguished Service Award, on his behalf.

CENTER FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT REPORTS TO STATE’S TOP EDUCATION BOARD ON LOUISIANA’S PRE-K PROGRAM - Thursday, October 18, 2007

BATON ROUGE, LA –A highly anticipated report by the Center for Child Development at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on the impact of Louisiana’s nationally acclaimed pre-kindergarten program was presented to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in Baton Rouge today. The report shows the educational gains made by students enrolled in the state’s PreK program, LA 4, translate into better performance on the iLEAP tests, the state’s 3^rd grade statewide assessment.

Governor Celebrates Naming Of Cecil Picard Elementary School - Thursday, August 23, 2007

LAFAYETTE, La. – Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco today joined the faculty, staff and student body of Maurice Elementary School, along with members of former State Superintendent of Education Cecil J. Picard’s family and their guests in celebrating the official naming of Cecil Picard Elementary School at Maurice in Vermilion Parish.

Data Summits - CCYS - Thursday, May 31, 2007

John Lacour, CCD's Director of Health Sciences, led a series of data summits focused on sharing the results of the latest Caring Communities Youth Survey. The data summits were held in Baton Rouge and Alexandria, Louisiana to provide prevention specialists from across the state the opportunity to not only see the latest results, but to learn how to use them within a community to advance alcohol and drug use prevention strategies. Mr. Lacour was assisted by Dr. Ed Ho from Bach-Harrison and Dr. Gary Asmus from the CCD.

Louisiana CCYS 2006 Results are now Available - Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The Louisiana CCYS is designed to assess students’ involvement in a specific set of problem behaviors, as well as their exposure to a set of scientifically validated risk and protective factors. The risk and protective factors have been shown to influence the likelihood of academic success, school dropout, substance abuse, violence, and delinquency among youth. This project was conducted under the direction of John Lacour and Gary Asmus of the CCD in collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Addictive Disorders and the Louisiana Department of Education.

Update on Student Displacement Due to Katrina and Rita - Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Dr. Gary Asmus of the Center for Child Development delivered a presentation at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development of the latest information on public school students that were displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Approximately 15,000 students that had not yet returned to school in Louisiana last school year have returned for the 2006-07 school year. There are still nearly 35,000 fewer students in Louisiana public schools than there were the year before the storms. For a complete copy of the presentation, click here.