Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) is a collaborative effort by certified law enforcement officers, educators, students, parents, and community to offer an educational program in the classroom to prevent or reduce drug abuse, violence, and gang involvement among children and youth.

D.A.R.E. places special emphasis on reaching children by the last year of elementary school. The emphasis is to help students recognize and resist the many direct and subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, or other drugs or to engage in violence. The program content for D.A.R.E. is organized into six 60 minute lessons to be taught by a D.A.R.E. certified law enforcement officer with suggested extended activities to be integrated into other instruction by the classroom teacher.

This core elementary instruction is followed up in middle school with six 60 minute lessons. These lessons provide skills for recognizing and resisting social pressures and help build communication skills. They teach positive alternatives to substance use and develop skills in risk assessment and decision making.

The purpose of the senior high D.A.R.E. program is to educate students about the personal and social consequences of substance abuse and to increase students' perceptions concerning the risks involved in substance abuse behavior. The lessons are also directed in assisting students to recognize and cope with feelings of anger without causing harm to themselves or others, and without resorting to violence or the use of alcohol and drugs.

The use of sworn, street-experienced, trained law enforcement officers/deputies has proven to be a highly effective strategy in helping provide credible education for students in drug abuse, violence, and gang prevention. It is this credibility that narrows the discrepancy between the relevancy of information being imparted in the classroom and the reality of what is happening in the "real world".

[Safe and Drug Free Schools Home Page]