The County Prosecutor's Office received the grant but because the office no longer has a community justice director (Angel M. Osorio was laid off in May) to manage the grant, it agreed to give it to the city, said prosecutor's spokesman Jason Laughlin.
The money needs to be used by Sept. 30 or the city would lose its chance at receiving the grant next year, city officials said. That is why the students who have enrolled in the program will be paid only three weeks into the school year and not at the end.
The only leverage the city has for these students after Sept. 30 is a pledge they signed, along with their parents, promising to not skip school. Officials involved in the program pledged, in return, to track the students' attendance throughout the year.
The plan drew skepticism Tuesday from at least one current school board member and one who recently retired.
At a board meeting Tuesday evening, board member Sean Brown expressed anger that he only belatedly learned of the truancy program, prompting board President Susan Dunbar-Bey to tell him that "details are still being worked out."
Brown said in a text message that he was opposed to paying students to go to school.
Former board member Jose Delgado called the idea "outrageous," saying it sends the wrong message to students. Delgado said schools needed more fundamental changes to keep students interested.
The city contracted Wren Ingram, the city's former curfew program coordinator, who was laid off in March, to coordinate ICE-T. Ingram will be paid a weekly stipend, which city officials did not release Tuesday afternoon, except to say that it will come out of the grant money.
The idea for the program came out of a youth-development forum earlier this summer, Mayor Dana Redd said.
