D A.R.E. Officers D.A.R.E. America

Last year alone, more than 80 communities throughout the United States launched a new D.A.R.E. program taught by officers trained during one of last year’s 28 two-week, intensive D.A.R.E. training courses which collectively graduated 800 new D.A.R.E. officers. D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. Highly Trained Officers Deliver the Curricula – D.A.R.E. officers must complete a rigorous, 80-hour training course conducted by mentors with years of classroom experience, as well as university-level educators. All officers are taught to deliver the curricula exactly as they are written seeking the goal of 100% fidelity of delivery. In the 1990s, different polls started to show a reduction in the use of cocaine, L.S.D., methamphetamines, and marijuana. But opponents argue that the program – which condemned illicit substances – might have made the survey participants be more guarded and thus less likely to open up about using.

In 2008, D.A.R.E. launched keepin’ it REAL in middle schools; in 2013, D.A.R.E. launched kiR’s elementary school curricula. 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. By September 1994, despite not having asecond presentation, RTI completed the project.

h-6th Grade Fentanyl Lessons

This revised program focuses on improving decision-making and communication skills through role-playing activities, peer interaction, support networks, mental health, and skill-building exercises focusing on coping skills. “I couldn’t understand, like, if these people can smoke weed after class and be totally fine, how can this curriculum be true?” Myers says. “I remember coming away from that in like middle school and early high school feeling really unsatisfied with the education. I remember feeling as though what I was being told perhaps wasn’t the truth.” A pilot study of the Safety First curriculum found it significantly increased high school students’ knowledge of harm reduction techniques and behaviors, and found a decrease in overall substance use.

• Volkow says that loss of credibility makes it harder to give students life-saving information about drugs now.
• With the tremendous success of the D.A.R.E. program in the United States in the 1980’s, other countries facing significant drug abuse problems among their youth approached D.A.R.E. America for guidance and assistance.
• Drug Enforcement Administration’s messaging to teenagers still focuses on the goal that they should be “drug-free.” But numerous studies published in the 1990s and early 2000s concluded programs like D.A.R.E. had no significant impact on drug use.

Why D.A.R.E. is Unique and Set Apart from Other Curricula

Her lab maintains a high school curriculum called Safety First (initially developed by the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance), which why d a.r.e. d.a.r.e. america encourages young people to abstain from drug use while also providing them with information to reduce their risk of addiction and death if they or their friends do choose to use. And yet those survival techniques were never talked about in Myers’ middle and high school drug education classes. He says those classes failed to prepare him and his peers for an increasingly dangerous drug landscape in which a single high can have deadly consequences. What amounted to a government cover-up of the RTI study is remarkable onits own, but what’s more remarkable is that its part of a pattern. Levant hastried to pressure Dateline NBC , for instance, to not produce a showabout D.A.R.E.’s ineffectiveness.

D.A.R.E. America and the D.A.R.E. Program

• Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at /us).
• D.A.R.E. lessons are derived from SMART, an anti-drug program developed by the University of Southern California.
• These evaluations saw the transformation of D.A.R.E. into an evidence-based curriculum, Keepin’ It REAL, which was launched in 2011.
• Halpern-Felsher says schools alone can’t solve the fentanyl crisis; rather, it requires a cultural shift.

His new book, Keeping KidsDrug Free, adapts much of D.A.R.E.’s classroom-based program for use byparents. Drug educators are already billing it as the hot new manual that willgive mom and dad the tools to talk to their kids about drugs – there’s even a2,000-word glossary of slang terms. But this guide, like D.A.R.E. itself, is,at best, out of touch and much more likely to foment hysteria than actuallyhelp families deal with or understand drugs. Through the years, scientific studies and additions have led to an ancillary program entitled “keepin’ it REAL” (kiR), which includes an interactive curriculum developed by prevention scientists at Pennsylvania and Arizona State Universities. Fundraising Toolkit D.A.R.E. America is constantly updating the curriculum with enhancement lessons (lessons beyond the core curriculum) in everything from meth and bullying to OTC prescription drug abuse and gangs. The cost of development, research, training, and world-wide distribution of materials for one enhancement lesson averages $600,000.

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 education program – Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

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.

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.

The History of the D.A.R.E. Program and Why it Failed

A comprehensive study completed in 2021 by UNC Greensboro – the only one ever conducted reviewing a prevention education curricula taught by law enforcement officers rather than teachers – concluded D.A.R.E. keepin’ it REAL Elementary School Curriculum is Evidence-based, Successful and Effective. D.A.R.E. is the most popular drug use prevention program in the U.S. (and the world). The original D.A.R.E. program, which was latched on Nancy Reagan’s mantra “Just Say No,” was created in 1983 as a joint effort between the Los Angeles Unified School District (L.A.U.S.D.) and Lost Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) to end the recurring cycle of substance abuse, related criminal issues, and arrest. The curriculum’s core elements were skill training, resistance, and self-esteem building for elementary school students. D.A.R.E. created and implemented a middle school and high school curriculum in 1984 and 1989, respectively.

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.

The article notes that Richard Clayton, Ph.D., a retired prevention researcher formerly of the University of Kentucky, who was also once an outspoken critic of D.A.R.E., has since joined D.A.R.E.’s board of directors and chairs its Scientific Advisory Committee. United Nations – D.A.R.E. is the only international drug prevention curricula to hold consultative status with the Committee on Non-Government Organizations of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. D.A.R.E. provides children with an opportunity to learn and practice good decision-making skills to lead safe and healthy lives. Through KARE, D.A.R.E. also gives to children’s hospitals and other children’s charities and shelters. Based on research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), early use of drugs increases the chances of becoming addicted.10 Drug use changes the brain and may lead to addiction. Preventing drug abuse before it starts – or treating abuse when it happens – can prevent these changes that lead to addiction.

Officer-led classroom lessons that reach 2,500,000 K-12 students per year

D.A.R.E. curricula provide students the knowledge and skills to make good decisions for safe and healthy living. D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL elementary and middle-school curricula are based on Socio-Emotional Learning Theory which identifies basic skills and processes needed for healthy youth development. Beyond this, D.A.R.E.’s enhancement lessons include bullying, cyber security, a supplemental marijuana lesson, family talks, and the recently launched K-12 Opioid & & Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention lessons. During 2024, D.A.R.E. America acquired ownership of the elementary and middle school D.A.R.E. keepin’ it REAL (kiR) curricula. D.A.R.E.’s search for evidence-based curricula created positive and productive partnerships with Pennsylvania State University/REAL Prevention and the University of North Carolina Greensboro/Prevention Strategies. These alliances resulted in adoption of the evidence-based kiR middle school and myPlaybook high school curriculums developed at those institutions.

The program, originallytargeted at seventy-five percent of the nation’s fifth and sixth graders, is agrab bag of good intentions, from improving self-image to fostering a betterimage of the police. Some time is spent on resistance techniques (“just sayno”) and the perils of drug abuse. There is a student workbook and homework, and a graduation ceremony;throughout the length of the course, the “D.A.R.E. box” sits in the classroom,a shoe box into which kids can drop anonymous notes informing the police aboutdrug users they might know. Most Comprehensive Prevention Education Program – D.A.R.E. education programs are the most comprehensive drug prevention curricula in the world taught in thousands of schools throughout America’s 50 states and its territories, as well as in many other countries reaching more than 1.5 million students annually. The results of 30 other similar studies indicate that the program didn’t prevent students from abusing substances in the short-term, or later on in life. A study produced alarming results with graduates showing a 29% increase in substance abuse and a 34% rise in tobacco use.