Get Involved in Your School

Children have the best prospects for leading healthy, drug-free lives when schools support parents in their anti-drug message. There should be nothing confusing or contradictory in what children learn about drugs from the adults in their lives, and school policies need to reflect the same attitude toward alcohol and drugs that you express at home: Drug use is not acceptable. Drugs diminish a child's ability to concentrate and follow through on academic responsibilities, they cause loss of motivation and absenteeism, and students who use them can be disruptive and drain teachers' time and energy.

The best way to ensure that the anti-drug policies at your child's school are strong is to be involved. You can:

Be involved in your child's education life. Review assignments. Meet his or her teachers. Attend school functions, especially parent-teacher conferences, and consider joining your local Parent Teachers Association (PTA). Know the route your child follows to and from school, and make sure it is supervised if your child is on foot.

Learn about the current policies regarding alcohol and other drugs at your child's school. If there's no anti-drug policy in place, attend PTA or curriculum review meetings, or schedule an interview with the principal to help develop a policy. The policy should specify what constitutes an alcohol, tobacco, or other drug offense, spell out the consequences for failing to follow the rules, and describe procedures for handling violations.

Familiarize yourself with how drug education is being taught in your child's school. Are the faculty members trained to teach about alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use? Is drug education taught in an age-appropriate way at each grade level throughout the year or only once during a special week? Is drug education taught during health class, or do all the teachers incorporate anti-drug information into their classes? Is there a parent education component? Is the school's program based on current research?

Immerse yourself in the school's drug education program at home. Ask your child to show you any materials distributed during or outside class and take the opportunity to review them together. Evaluate the materials to make sure they contain a clear message that alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use is wrong and harmful. Check that the information accurate and up to date.

Investigate whether your school's drug program is being evaluated for success. Research indicates that some of the most effective programs emphasize the value of life skills such as coping with anxiety, being assertive, and feeling comfortable socially. When these lessons are combined with drug education and media literacy (being able to critically evaluate the media's messages), students confronted with drugs are better equipped to resist them.

Volunteer to take part in a school safety assessment. Find out if your child's school has a recent safety assessment. If not, initiate one with the school administration, a local anti-drug coalition, or your local PTA. Children have a right to a safe school environment, free from drugs and violence.

Some of the information contained in this article provided courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education: Growing Up Drug-Free: A Parent's Guide to Prevention - 1998

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