Thanks very much, and thanks to the witnesses.
I'll start with Mr. McFee.
You were going pretty fast with the numbers. I heard somewhere in the last couple of weeks that math is hard. I was having trouble keeping up. You were extrapolating out over the years the number of dollars it would take eventually. I think we can all agree that early intervention and prevention would be the most effective use of public money. If we can keep young people from not engaging in the justice system, I think that's ideal.
That's why I like what you're doing with the absentee program. Can you share with the committee...? Truancy would have been a responsibility of the school board before you changed the approach. Could you give us some kind of indication as to the numbers before the change in direction? And why wasn't it getting done before, if in fact it wasn't getting done?