D. A. R. E. Midwestern Regional Training Center

D.A.R.E. Program

Describe the Policy: The D.A.R.E. Program was created to help youths say “no to drugs”. “Started in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. School Districts, DARE has quickly become the nation's standard anti-drug curriculum.”(Glass 1997) The D.A.R.E program represents an agreement between local schools and their local law enforcement officers. However, the D.A.R.E program on a national scale is ran by D.A.R.E America, which receives input from state and local communities on how they feel the D.A.R.E program should be working.(Gist 2001) “The primary goal of D.A.R.E. Program is to prevent substance abuse among schoolchildren and help them develop effective gang and violence resistance techniques.”(Gist
This curriculum was designed to help kids that have special education needs. “ The D.A.R.E. Midwestern Regional Training Center, administered by the Illinois State Police, has adapted the D.A.R.E. curriculum for special populations.”(Gist 2001) The D.A.R.E. Officers that attend the Midwestern Regional Training Center receive a completely different training than any other DARE officers. The training specializes the DARE officers in areas that will help them teach the students with special needs. The special education curriculum however is model after the Core Curriculum DARE program in that it has a 17 week program that meets for an hour ever lesson. The 6th and final curriculum that is intended for kids through the DARE program is the DARE + PLUS program. The program was established to help sixth, seventh, and eight graders stay in school and not got involved with gangs, drugs, and violence. “D.A.R.E.+ P.L.U.S. provides students with a wide range of educational, vocational, and recreational after school activities in a safe and well-supervised campus setting.”(Gist 2001) The final component that the DARE program offers is the parent component which
Sadly in almost all research studies the information shows that the DARE program has not been ineffective in helping our youths say no to drugs. “ The problem with D.A.R.E. is that it doesn't work; at least a dozen independent studies have shown that kids who go through the seventeen-week program are just as likely to use drugs as those who don't.”(Glass 1998) A study that was done in 1987 in Kokomo, Indiana looked at how effective the DARE program worked. The school officials in Kokomo asked two sociology professors from Indiana University to conduct an investigation into the DARE program to see if it actually worked. The researchers started with the 5th grade class of 1987 through 1994 which happen to be the students last year of high school. The researchers also used the 1991 graduating class that had not participated in the DARE program to be able to compare the two classes. The researchers found “that the level of drug use among kids who had gone through DARE was virtually identical to the level among kids who had not.”(Glass 1997) This study shows that the effectiveness of the DARE program isn't there. The study shows that kids who go through the program are just as likely to use drugs as kids that don't go through the program. According to a study done in 1996, by Dick Clayton a well