VIDALIA — The state legislature implemented a new alternative graduation track for Louisiana high school students in July, but Concordia Parish students won’t have that option this year.

The Concordia Parish school district is one of dozens of school districts that have asked for and been granted a waiver to put off implementing the career track diploma program.

“Basically, all of this was just approved and the guidelines were not in place, as well as the curriculum and materials, so we didn’t have enough time to put something in place without disrupting things,” Superintendent Loretta Blankenstein said.

When implemented, the career-track program will offer a diploma for non-college bound students, and will allow eighth grade students to circumvent the LEAP test requirements to enter high school.

Rather than the 24 credits required for graduation, the students in the career track program will have to attain 23 credits and take a seven-course cluster in a given vocational area, such as healthcare or welding.

“Some school districts may have many career paths, and others will probably be very limited,” Director of Academics Paul Nelson said.

One of the differences is that remedial courses that would not be counted toward graduation on a traditional track can count toward graduation credits on the career track, and some courses can be offered as alternatives, Nelson said.

“For example, they might let nutrition count as a science course,” he said.

The problem is the track has not been fully defined by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, leaving a lot of questions, Nelson said.

For example, many districts have already developed their own remedial courses, and might have to drop those for one promulgated by the state.

Also, some of the requirements that have been adopted are problematic, he said.

Students who were suspended as eighth graders or who had five unexcused absences cannot currently be considered for the program.

“That’s the audience you are preparing it for, so if you have these requirements the program will be empty,” Nelson said.

And while the program lifts the LEAP requirements, students are still required to pass the GEE.

“They’re saying we will let them circumvent the eighth grade test, but we will still catch them on the back end,” Nelson said.

If the parameters of the program are defined at upcoming BESE meetings, it is possible the Concordia Parish district will be able to offer the courses for the 2011 school year, Nelson said.

If the program is implemented, the parents of students entering it will be required to meet with the school principal and guidance counselor, and the student will have to sign off that they understand the diploma will not be recognized by a Louisiana college or university, Nelson said.

The career diploma track has a mentoring and dropout prevention program attached to it, Nelson said.

“The goal to help more kids have a career after school, that is a noble goal,” Nelson said. “We are not opposed to it. We are concerned about the managerial side of the program, of how we are going to put it together and manage it.”