It also denounced alcohol, tobacco, graffiti, and tattoos as the results of peer pressure. The D.A.R.E. keepin’ it REAL (kiR) middle school curriculum was developed by Pennsylvania State and Arizona State Universities with funding provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. FALLSBURG — Back in 1983, a Los Angeles school district created a partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department to create a drug resistance education program for students. Based upon the science of avoidance at the time, the program taught about specific drugs and effects. A middle-school curriculum was launched on 1984, followed by a high school program in 1989. Facing unparalleled drug abuse among our youth in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, visionary Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1983 launched an unprecedented and innovative substance abuse prevention why d a.r.e. d.a.r.e. america education program – Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
Escanaba 5th graders ready to face bullies after D.A.R.E. class
- Age-appropriate lessons are taught by certified police officers in K–12 classrooms.
- They teach students about drug abuse prevention and build trust and positivity between law enforcement and the public.
- D.A.R.E. America extends its sincere gratitude to the thousands of D.A.R.E. officers throughout the United States and 28 other countries for their efforts and accomplishments achieved during 2024.
- The 10 lessons in D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL elementary curriculum are aligned with National Common Core 5th grade standards.
- Nationally, “community-based policing” is a dominant approach for law enforcement agencies.
Launched in 1983, D.A.R.E. is a comprehensive K-12 prevention education program taught in thousands of schools in America, as well as many other countries. The program was conducted by uniformed police officers who visited classrooms. Not only is D.A.R.E. still around, it’s growing with education programs in every state in America and many other countries. Since 2018, more than 500 communities throughout the United States launched a new D.A.R.E. program.
D.A.R.E. Officers
Corroborating the efficacy of D.A.R.E. officers validate the unique emphasis placed on comprehensive training D.A.R.E. officers receive for the delivery of the curricula. Its unparalleled delivery system utilizing law enforcement officers as instructors and the fact that it was the first program of its kind anywhere in the world have individually and collectively played a critical role in D.A.R.E.’s growth and expansion. However, to remain relevant, effective, and impactful requires much more… it requires the critical review and substantive contributions of highly respected experts in the field of education, science, and law enforcement. And it also needs the intelligent comments and recommendations of the program’s audience – school children. To this end, several years ago D.A.R.E. established key Advisory Committees, the members of which are actively engaged in the development and implementation of virtually all aspects of the D.A.R.E. program. Based on the results of T.C.Y.L., D.A.R.E. transitioned to a brand new, and promising coursework called Keepin’ it REAL.
Many programs in the D.A.R.E. curriculum use law enforcement as educators and positive role models. They teach students about drug abuse prevention and build trust and positivity between law enforcement and the public. Only officers who are carefully vetted by leadership in their community law enforcement agencies are sent to DOTs. They are further vetted by the mentors responsible for training new D.A.R.E. officers. Then, D.A.R.E. officers undergo a rigorous 80-hour training course conducted by mentors with a significant number of years of classroom experience as well as university-level educators in Colleges of Education.
Officer-led classroom lessons that reach 2,500,000 K-12 students per year
The two high school curriculums were developed by Rutgers University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro respectively. These curricula have been proven effective through rigorous scientific evaluations. The D.A.R.E. kiR elementary curriculum is currently the subject of rigorous scientific evaluation, results of a preliminary evaluation of the curriculum conducted by Chapman University showed positive outcomes. Over the past three years, 118 D.A.R.E. Officer Trainings have certified 2,458 law enforcement officers to teach D.A.R.E.’s evidence-based and proven effective keepin’ it REAL elementary and middle school curricula and myPlaybook high school curriculum. D.A.R.E. curricula have been proven effective and evidence-based through multiple studies.
Earl Wysong and David W. Wright wrote in Sociological Focusthat the D.A.R.E. researchers they had interviewed “asked to remainanonymous out of fear of political reprisals and to protect their careers.”That’s an almost unheard-of request in an academic journal. Ann Voit, an NIJ spokeswoman, announced that the agency wasn’t trying to”hide” the study, and wasn’t publishing it only because the NIJ didn’t agreewith the findings, a puzzling statement since NIJ hired RTI in the first placebecause it trusted the research firm to evaluate D.A.R.E. impartially. Laurie Bright,NIJ’s program manager, sent a memo to RTI saying that the “methodology” appearsto be sound, and D.A.R.E. representatives did not offer any specificflaws…it presented findings in a very fair and impartial light.” D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 and has proven so successful that it has been implemented in thousands of schools throughout the United States and many other countries. California Healthy Kids Resource Center – The California Healthy Kids Resource Center, a division of the California Departments of Health and Education, lists keepin’ it REAL as “research validated”…its equivalent of an evidence-based ranking.
High School Fentanyl Lessons
A 2009 analysis of existing data from Texas A&M revealed that the program’s data may not be reliable.6 D.A.R.E. is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, which requires drug prevention programs to be demonstrably effective to continue providing funds. When D.A.R.E. wasn’t proven effective, the program was revised to D.A.R.E. Keepin’ it REAL.
Students engage in scenario-based activities that help them apply effective decision making skills related to medicine use. Communities understandably wanted to ensure their kids led a drug-free lifestyle. It reached about 6 million learners in the first year at the cost of $750 million. It even expanded to other parts of the country (and globe) with funding support from the Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Communities Act of 1994, Department of Justice and other organizations. According to a National Institute of Justice report, 52% of school districts nationwide had adopted the D.A.R.E. program in one or more of their schools in 1994. Keepin’ it REAL and other programs can produce positive results based on research-based or evidence-based curricula.
D.A.R.E. lost federal funding because it was not evidence-based, which was a recent requirement set by the Department of Education. Teens are dying after taking what they thought was Adderall or Percocet, but turn out to be fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills. “Nobody ever told me about how to drink safely and how, if I use pills, you know, they have different effects on you and what those effects are, and how it could just kill you — just one night, bad pill, it could all go down the drain.”
- If the book is similar to D.A.R.E.’s curriculum, this would help explainwhy sociologists regularly dismiss the program as ineffective in academicjournals.
- Keeping KidsDrug Free lays the responsibility for children’s drug use on parents’ability–or inability–to serve as squeaky-clean role models.
- Asked about the internal report, Levant said he didn’t know anything aboutthe minutes and maintained that D.A.R.E. never tried to suppress the governmentstudy.
- Some of the time spent in the Keepin’ it REAL sessions is used for role-playing in groups.
Though the program was widely used in the past, criticisms have brought reform to the D.A.R.E. program with a strong emphasis on evidence and research. In 2017, D.A.R.E held its 30th annual training conference for D.A.R.E. officers offering over 70 workshops on updates of the curricula and topic-specific issues that will help the officers address issues experienced by youth in preK-12 grades. In addition to the United States, trained officers deliver D.A.R.E. curricula in 52 other countries. The Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), responsible for drug abuse issues held its annual summer meeting at the 30th D.A.R.E. training conference. In contrast, the length of training for most other prevention programs is only 2-3 days and is usually offered only to existing classroom teachers.
Some experts say drug education that focuses on harm reduction techniques – designed to keep people safe when they do choose to use – could help save lives. A series of scientific studies in the 1990s and 2000s cast doubt on the effectiveness of D.A.R.E., with some studies concluding the program was harmful or counterproductive. Years after its effectiveness was cast into doubt, the program remained popular among politicians and many members of the public, in part because of a common intuition that the program ought to work.
– California Department of Education
But when used recreationally — either purposefully or unknowingly — it’s extremely dangerous, because very small amounts can lead to an overdose. First, Halpern-Felsher says, students need to know the facts about drugs — including their benefits and their harms. “The most important tenet of drug education is to be honest,” says professor Bonnie Halpern-Felsher. “And to have a balanced perspective. We cannot lie, we cannot exaggerate to teens.” Critics of the program are scared even to discuss D.A.R.E. in professionalpublications.
Proponents say that D.A.R.E. has helped prevent drug use in elementary, middle, and high school students. They contend that D.A.R.E. improves social interaction between police officers, students, and schools, is the most prevalent substance abuse prevention program in the United States, and is popular with kids and parents. The 10 lessons in D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL elementary curriculum are aligned with National Common Core 5th grade standards.
