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DARE program losing ground?
MEGAN JURINEK | nwiTimes.com | July 9, 2006

A lack of funding for a national drug prevention program is one reason several local police departments no longer offer drug prevention education in schools, officials said.

The DARE program, which teaches students about the dangers of drugs, is no longer a part of several local police departments.

A decrease in the number of DARE programs is a concern because a lot of schools do not offer enough drug prevention information, said Gerald Ruff, DARE officer for the Steger Police Department.

Steger has been able to keep its DARE program through local donations, Ruff said. The program is able to educate fourth-, fifth-graders and junior high students on alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use, he said.

Ruff also speaks with teachers about the drugs their students are abusing, issues with gangs and problems with violence, Ruff said.

"The teachers love that because where else can they go for information," Ruff said. "If they see or hear anything and have a question, they can come right to me."

Even though some areas have cut DARE, the program continues to be strong, said Scott Gilliam, director of training for the DARE program.

"The facts are that there is not a teacher or a parent that wants DARE out of the schools," Gilliam said. "But budgets determine if they can have DARE or not."

The program still serves 75 percent of the schools districts in the U.S., Gilliam said.

Some DARE programs have been dropped because they don't have the money to hire an officer, Gilliam said. He said much of the funding for DARE comes from federal government and that money has "dried up."

Such police departments as Chicago Heights no longer offer this program.

The Crete Police Department does not offer a DARE program because the Crete fifth- and sixth-graders attend a middle school in University Park, said Katy Dreixler, records supervisor for the Crete Police Department. The University Park Police Department does have a DARE officer.

The Sauk Village Police Department does not offer the DARE program due to lack of funding, said Laura Placek, Sauk Village juvenile and school resource officer.

Placek said the department's DARE license expired a couple of years ago and the former DARE officer has retired.

"I have just been working at the schools as a resource officer," Placek said. "I am there for information within the schools, and it's basically law enforcement, like basic security."

Placek said she is in the process of obtaining grant money and attending the DARE information program for officers so that program can be re-established. She said no money was offered last year, but she intends to keep looking.

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Buzzby

Parents, teachers, school administrators, and school boards should be happy that fewer schools are participating in DARE programs.

Studies have repeatedly shown DARE to be totally ineffective in steering kids away from using illicit drugs. A recent study showed that DARE graduates are more likely to get involved with illicit drug use than their counterparts who did not participate in the program.

DARE is one of those "we've got to do something about this problem" projects. No matter that it doesn't work or is counterproductive - at least it's doing "something" and that makes grownups feel better about themselves.

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PotShot

A blast from the past!


AZ: DARE becomes rarer.


When will these people learn....

vladimir

i thought that DARE was no longer at all funded by the feds because it was shown to be ineffective...this true?

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If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of, the human experiment.

Stephanie S.

D.A.R.E. has been a wasted effort since its inception. I wonder how much has been spent on T-Shirts alone in that program.



D.A.R.E. Fact Sheet
Compiled by Ariel Kalishman, Drug Policy Alliance. April 2003.

In the 20 years since DARE began, studies have consistently shown that DARE has no significant effect on students’ use of drugs.

The General Accounting Office of the US Government found “no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received DARE . . . and students who did not.”


Estimated costs of DARE annually: $1 to 1.3 billion.


In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General placed DARE under the category of “Ineffective Programs.”


The National Academy of Sciences has called DARE ineffective.

The Department of Education prohibited schools from spending its Safe and Drug-Free Schools money on DARE because they did not consider it effective in reducing drug use. DARE America, the parent organization of the DARE program, has continues to receive money because they are trying to update the curriculum.


Problems with the “New” Dare, which was developed by DARE America in response to decades of criticism about the failures of DARE. The new version is being currently being researched for efficacy.


It is fundamentally the same as the original program, with only superficial changes. The same student handbook will be used, with the same messages that do not work.

Preliminary evaluations have found rates of drug use among students participating in the “New” DARE are the same as the rates among students who are taught using the old, failed DARE.

Even DARE America’s president and founding director has admitted the program’s shortcomings. ``There's quite a bit we can do to make it better and we realize that,'' said Glenn Levant.


DARE America’s vice-president, Nancy J. Kaufman, has admitted that abstinence-only education is empty rhetoric. “Realistically, people understand that for a great number of adolescents, they might try something at least once.”


The head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Dr. Zili Sloboda, noted that DARE is far from the only anti-drug program that does not work, but has drawn the most criticism because it is the largest.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/fa...dare/index.cfm


peace

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