“Whatgot RTI in the most hot water is that they said other programs work better,”says Mount Holyoke’s Moran. RTI found that not only did D.A.R.E. have no effecton drug use, it was crowding out money from programs that did. Dr. HerbertKleber, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry who heads D.A.R.E.’sscientific-advisory board, said that the study was based on an outdatedD.A.R.E. Curriculum and called alternatives “boutique programs,” which wereperformed only in highly controlled environments.
So when the Justice Department approached the company to conduct anenormous study, D.A.R.E. jumped at the opportunity. Instead, it examined thebest local tests of D.A.R.E. and used complex statistical analysis to seewhether the results could be applied nationally. In 2021, the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and Prevention Strategies completed its three year, multi-longitudinal evaluation of D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL elementary school prevention education curriculum. These lessons in the comprehensive Opioid series acquaint students with the role of law enforcement, reviews safety practices, and identify the safe use and handling of medicines.
Answers to Four Common Questions About D.A.R.E. Curricula
Again, between 1991 and 1995, there was a 92% increase among 8th graders who had used marijuana and a 59% increase in illicit drug use among high school seniors. The war on drugs didn’t manage to prevent declining life expectancies and record numbers of overdoses either. The approach made sense on the surface and was widely embraced by teachers, parents, and policymakers. But as it turns out, the program did little or nothing to fight drug abuse in youth. A 2009 meta-analysis of 20 controlled studies by two statisticians revealed that those who participated in why d a.r.e. d.a.r.e. america the D.A.R.E. program were just as likely to abuse substance as those who got no intervention.
Naloxone can save students’ lives, but not every school has it
Another change to the new program is REAL, a curriculum designed to reach at-risk groups. It offers rural, multicultural, and Spanish versions to target communities the predecessor may have overlooked. If D.A.R.E. can prevent even one child from becoming addicted to drugs or dying from a drug overdose then it is worth funding.
Pro 3: D.A.R.E. improves social interaction between police officers, students, and schools.
In 1986 Congress passed the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, with language added in 1989 that allocated funding for D.A.R.E. and other drug use prevention programs. By 2000, near the program’s peak, it was used in up to 75 percent of American school districts, reaching more than 26 million students per year. By 2024 the program was also used outside the U.S. in 29 countries, reaching more than three million international students each year. To become certified to teach the program, each D.A.R.E. officer must complete an 80-hour training course. D.A.R.E.’s elementary, middle and high school curricula, as well as its enhancement lessons on subjects that include bullying, internet safety, and over-the-counter prescription drug and opiates abuse, have been developed through partnerships with highly respected universities and prevention education experts.
Fifth graders commended during D.A.R.E. graduation
Often, D.A.R.E. programs feature officer-led classroom lessons with a curriculum designed for K-12 students. They use an integrated approach to tackle tough topics like drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and vaping, with each lesson building upon the last. D.A.R.E.’s mission is to provide children with the knowledge and tools to resist drugs.2 Later, avoiding gangs and violence was added to the program. The vision of D.A.R.E. and its creators was to create a world in which students have the opportunity to enjoy a life free from substance abuse and violence. By the end of 2010, more than 9,000 international law enforcement officers had been trained in 9 D.A.R.E. America training centres throughout the world and are now teaching the D.A.R.E. curriculum in 13 languages to hundreds of thousands of school children in 44 different countries.
New D.A.R.E. Program
D.A.R.E. was one of the most popular drug education and prevention school programs in the 1980s and 1990s. It was active in 75% of school districts and had government funding.3 However, its popularity and growth were more beneficial for profits and merchandising opportunities than the intended purpose—to prevent drug abuse. This article reports the results of a five-year, longitudinal evaluations of theeffectiveness of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), a school-based primarydrug prevention curriculum designed for introduction during the last year ofelementary education. D.A.R.E. is the most widely disseminated school-basedprevention curriculum in the United States. D.A.R.E. Keepin’ it REAL is a science—and evidence-based curriculum that improves on the previous program and seeks to fix its mistakes. The new program prioritizes peer interactions and developments in addiction science rather than fear-based or profit-motivated lesson plans.
The latest college campus freebies? Naloxone and fentanyl test strips
From the D.A.R.E. kiR middle school curriculum, the D.A.R.E. kiR elementary curriculum evolved. The D.A.R.E. kiR elementary curriculum has been established as being evidence-based ⁴, the only elementary prevention education curriculum to have efficacy verifies through rigorous, longitudinal scientific study, with results published in a recognized peer-review journal. Since 2018, more than 250 communities throughout the United States launched a newD.A.R.E. Elementary, middle, and high school curricula, as well as critical enhancement lessons on subjects including opioid abuse prevention, vaping, and teen suicide, are now being taught in these communities by officers who attended one of the 75 two-week, intensive D.A.R.E. training courses conducted since 2018. More than 2,000 new D.A.R.E. Officers from virtually every state in America were graduated.
- The 19-year-old recounts a recent incident in which his friends got ahold of a drug that test strips showed was laced with fentanyl, a potent, often deadly, synthetic opioid.
- Another asks whether he had “something excitinghappen” in the past four weeks.
- Their presentations warned students about the dangers of substance use and told kids to say no to drugs.
- While it was perhaps well-intentioned, D.A.R.E. did not produce positive results in stemming the tide of drug abuse in the United States.
And now, overdose deaths among teenagers have skyrocketed — largely due to fentanyl. The synthetic opioid was involved in the vast majority of teen overdose deaths in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of those deaths involved fentanyl-laced counterfeit prescription pills that didn’t come from a pharmacy. From a prevention perspective, the pre K-12, D.A.R.E. keepin’ it REAL curricula are targeted at all students (i.e. “universal” prevention) rather than being targeted at students with specific risk factors (“selected” prevention) or at students who are already using drugs (“indicated” prevention).
- By 1991, a handful of important researchers had said their datademonstrated that D.A.R.E. didn’t work.
- Also in attendance at the graduation were Fallsburg Police Chief Simmie Williams, fifth grade D.A.R.E. instructor Sgt. Michael Summa and several other officers from the Fallsburg Police Department.
- Since 2018, more than 250 communities throughout the United States launched a newD.A.R.E.
- The focus of social-emotional learning principles in the D.A.R.E./keepin’ it REAL curricula could be critical elements in decisions to not continue using drugs, to encourage decreasing and/or completely stopping the use of drugs.
But the most disheartening research done on the D.A.R.E. program was one that for over ten years. Participants indicated their drug use statuses when they were 10, and then 20 years old. The results showed that those who finished the program were no less likely to drink alcohol, use illegal drugs, or succumb to peer pressure than their counterparts who never went through the program. What’s more, participants who took part in the program said they struggled with low self-esteem later in life. If you were among the millions of students who took part in the D.A.R.E. program between 1983 and 2009, you might be surprised to learn that experts have repeatedly proven that it didn’t work. Despite being one of the most widely used drug abuse prevention programs targeted at school-aged students, it did not make you any less likely to abuse drugs or turn down the offer to abuse drugs from friends.
