United States General Accounting Office Human Resources Division B-214215 November 28, 1990 The Honorable John Glenn Chairman, Committee on Governmental Affairs Dear Mr. Chairman: Because of your concern that substance abuse among our nation's youth poses serious dangers to society, you asked us to review implementation of the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1986. A major purpose of the act was to help schools and communities establish drug abuse education and prevention programs. Specifically, you asked that we identify how school districts use funds provided under the act, determine how school districts assess program effectiveness, obtain students' views on the drug education provided, and identify state and local program officials' views on the Department of Education's program direction. Our testimony on these issues before your committee in Cleveland on February 13, 1990, was based on preliminary work in Ohio. This report discusses our work in five states (California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas) and the District of Columbia. These jurisdictions accounted for $330 million, or 30 percent of the total program funds allocated to states and the District of Columbia since the program's inception in October 1986. To respond to your request, we obtained information from the state edu- School districts are using a wide range of approaches in their Drug-Free Schools programs. But, little is known at the local, state, or national level about what approach works best or how effectively the various programs and curricula reduce or prevent drug and alcohol abuse among students. Overall, the six districts we visited used more than 50 percent of the funds for student assistance (primarily counseling) programs geared to high-risk students' in junior and senior high school. They used the remaining funds primarily for training teams of school officials to develop drug prevention programs or on classroom curricula and materials. Each district covered alcohol abuse in its drug education programs. Districts often were unable to provide the Drug-Free Schools programs to all schools or all students within a school. The reason, they said, was that not enough teachers had yet been trained to teach drug education courses or new programs yet been fully implemented. |