The number of school districts using the program has
decreased
Gilroy – The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program is disappearing from school districts nationwide, including here in Gilroy where the school district is cutting the D.A.R.E. program next year and replacing it with LifeSkills Training.
Developed in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Unified School District, the number of school districts using the D.A.R.E. program has decreased because it. does not have proven long-term success, school officials said.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that school districts spend state funds for the school safety and prevention programs on at least one ‘science–based’ program, Greg Wolfe a consultant for the California Department of Education explained.
“D.A.R.E. is not one of them,” he said. “The published studies of D.A.R.E. were not reporting that D.A.R.E. worked in changing behaviors.”
School districts that want to continue using the the. program must now pay for it with different funds than those allocated by the state.
“Our most recent numbers show that many more (school districts) are using ALERT or LifeSkills … over programs like Here’s Looking at You and D.A.R.E.,” Wolfe said.
The LifeSkills program is designed for elementary and middle school aged students, and the curriculum is taught over the course of three years, in 30 different sessions. It consists of three primary components – drug resistance skills, self management decisions, and teaching general social skills.
In 2001, the United States Department of Education along with an expert panel compiled a list of nine exemplary, and 33 promising drug and alcohol prevention programs: D.A.R.E. did not make either list.
However, D.A.R.E. advocates are fighting to improve its reputation.
“That list was created years ago,” said Dale Brown, a D.A.R.E. Regional Director.
In the past five years, the D.A.R.E. program has undergone significant changes to the curriculum, he explained. There are ongoing scientific studies at the University of Ohio, Akron and at the University of Kentucky that prove that D.A.R.E. works at the middle school and high school levels, Brown said.
He indicated that the D.A.R.E. program has filed for a waiver with the CDE to receive Safe and Drug Free School Funding.
Brown insisted that D.A.R.E. has what LifeSkills lacks, the involvement of the school district’s local police force.
In the D.A.R.E. program, police officers go into the classroom and help build positive relationships with local youth starting in fifth grade. Officers said the relationships formed between officers and students helps.
“I feel that the program is effective,” said Gilroy Police Officer Pat Sullivan who taught D.A.R.E. in Gilroy schools for the past four years.
The program is introduced to fifth grade students and teaches the effects of using substances such as tobacco, drugs, and alcohol over nine classes.
Students learn relationship building skills and discuss dealing with various forms of peer pressures, Sullivan explained.
He is not convinced that D.A.R.E. isn’t working to prevent students from using drugs and alcohol.
“Can you show me something that says it doesn’t work?” he asked. “I think that the kids need this type of program. And that’s not just because I’m involved in it. This is one of the few chances that they get to see the positive side of (police officers.)”
Often times, when Sullivan is out grocery shopping, his former students will recognize him and say hello.
While Sullivan isn’t certain this familiarity is a deciding factor in whether an individual decides to use drugs, he hopes so.
“People choose their own path,” he said. “It’s not only us – if they don’t have the support at home or their peers around them – who knows where they’ll end up.”
While D.A.R.E. is no longer an approved program for state funding, Wolfe did see some benefits to the program.
“I think that the students really appreciated the officers in the D.A.R.E. program. But the curricula that was developed was not an effective one,” he said.
