Dare Program

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 2001) The D.A.R.E. Program has configured objectives that each D.A.R.E. officer must try to accomplished with its students. According to D.A.R.E lessons the objectives of each D.ARE officer is: Enhancing self-esteem, Learning assertiveness techniques, Learning about positive alternatives to substance use, Learning anger management and conflict resolution skills, Developing risk assessment and decision making skills, Reducing violence, Building interpersonal and communications skills, Resisting gang involvement. (Gist 2001) The D.A.R.E program has six unique curriculum and one parent component that helps children of all ages stay away from tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and gangs. The core curriculum that the DARE program is the one that most of us are familiar with. The DARE core curriculum is taught by a trained DARE officer to 5th and 6th graders throughout the country. “The core curriculum includes one lesson each week for 17 consecutive weeks.”(Gist 2001) In these lessons the DARE officers try to use many different teaching styles such as “question-and-answer sessions, group discussions, role-playing, and workbook exercises.”(Gist 2001) The second DARE curriculum that is often used is when the DARE officer has finished his lesson with the 5th and 6th graders, the officer will then visit kids that are in kindergarten through the 4th grade to try to introduce the DARE program to them. Considering how much time the officer has the lessons with the younger students last roughly 20-25 minutes. These lessons normally include “ topics such as obeying laws, personal safety, and the helpful and harmful uses of medicines and drugs.”(Gist 2001) The third curriculum that the DARE program uses is the junior high approach. “The D.A.R.E. junior high curriculum emphasizes information and skills that enable students to resist peer pressure and negative influences in making personal choices.”(Gist 2001) The junior high approach has only 10 lessons compared to the core curriculum that has 17 lessons. In these 10 lesson the DARE officer must try to help the students control and manage their feelings and aggression. The DARE officer also tries to show the students that there are alternatives ways to resolving conflicts without resorting to violence, drugs, or alcohol. The fourth curriculum that the DARE program has used is the high school curriculum. This high school curriculum is also different from the core curriculum, but it still tries to follow same guidelines. The high school curriculum “focuses on the everyday situations that high school students encounter. For the first five lessons, a D.A.R.E. officer and a high school teacher use the technique of team teaching.”(Gist 2001) The officer and teacher then try to show information and skills that help students respond in their own best interests when facing peer pressure. The teacher and officer also try to help students handle their feelings of anger. After these first five lessons are done the high school curriculum has a unique finished to it. There are five follow up lessons that are taught by the teacher that have no DARE officer present. The five follow up lessons taught by the teacher, are serve to reinforce the initial lessons taught by the DARE officer and teacher.(Gist 2001) The fifth curriculum that the DARE program uses is the special education curriculum. 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 gives the parent a chance to participate in the DARE program. The parent component allows parents to get a better understanding on how to provide information on “communication and self-esteem building, risk factors associated with young children, basic facts on drug usage and the stages of adolescent chemical dependency, protective factors and sources of pressure, violence and conflict resolution, and agency networking in the community.”(Gist 2001) The parent component of the DARE program is offered in six two hour sessions. The sessions normally take place in the evening and are taught by a certified DARE officer.

There are many other components to the DARE program besides its curriculum. The DARE program is currently being used in over eighty percent of our school district's in the United States. Since starting in 1983 the DARE program has had “more than 22,000 community-oriented law enforcement officers from 7,000 communities throughout the country that have taught the core curriculum to 25 million children”(Gist 2001). The D.A.R.E. Program is currently being taught by law enforcement officers in 43 countries worldwide. The DARE program has an extremely high price tag costing the federal and state governments roughly $750 million a year.(Walker 2006) The federal government