CIS surrounds students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. CIS established its New Orleans affiliate in 1996. Today we serve over 6,500 students in grades PreK-12 across the Greater New Orleans region. CIS trains and places highly qualified Site Coordinators (social workers and counselors) directly into schools. Once there, our job is to connect students and their families to basic and critical community resources, tailored to each student's specific needs. We remove barriers that keep children out of school which can include connecting families to housing, food banks, healthcare, and behavioral health services. CIS is the only drop out prevention organization proven to both decrease dropout rates and increase graduation rates.