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America goes back to School

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Information
Secretary Riley's Press Release AGBTS 98
Model Programs/Best Practices
Five Key Areas in Education
Key facts on family
Partner's Activity Kit 1998
Co-chairs and Steering Committee Members
America Goes Back to School

Making Schools Safe and Drug-Free

"America's schools are among the safest places to be on a day to day basis. Ninety percent of our schools are free of serious violent crime. We have millions of young people who are healthy and happy and want to learn. We need to stop and think hard about what we can do to help our children grow up safely and learn to reject violence."

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley

Everyone who cares about children is concerned about the amount of violence and drugs that plague our society. Schools can play a significant role in preventing violence and drug and alcohol abuse. Recent research suggests that some of the most promising prevention strategies involve education and skills training - things schools are uniquely qualified to do, both because they have young people as a captive audience, and because teachers know how to educate students. The U.S. Department of Education supports a variety of anti-drug and violence education and prevention efforts including the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, and Peer Mediation, and Conflict Resolution initiatives. In addition, it has issued Truancy Prevention, and School Uniform Manuals, and enforces Zero-Tolerance Policies for weapons in schools. The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice are collaborating on a number of efforts to help principals, school administrators, teachers and parents address problems of safety and violence in their schools and communities.

Some facts:

  • 90% of schools reported NO incidents of serious violent crime in 1996-1997.
  • There was no change in the percent of students reporting any (violent or property) victimization at school (14.5 versus 14.6 percent), or the percent of students reporting property victimization at school (12.2 versus 11.6 percent) between 1989 and 1995.
  • Crime is more prevalent in city schools: 17% of schools located in cities reported at least one serious violent crime, 8 percent of rural schools, and 5% of schools located in towns.
  • Crime was more prevalent in large schools: 38% of small schools reported any incidents versus 60% of medium sized schools, and 89% of large schools.
  • 6,093 students were expelled from public schools for bringing a firearm to school as a result of the implementation of the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994.
  • 43% of elementary and secondary school principals reported no incidents of crime in their schools in 1996-1997.

Some good examples:

  • Families and Schools Together (FAST) is a family based program designed to reduce casual factors related to three problems: (1) alcohol and drug abuse, (2) violence and delinquency, and (3) school dropout. FAST has been implemented at more than 400 sites in 29 states, Canada and Australia. The program has been translated into Spanish and has been used with multilingual groups. FAST targets schoolchildren (ages 4-9) who have been found to have high rates of aggression, noncompliance, and behavior problems or have been identified by their teachers as at-risk. The program consists of multiple family meetings facilitated by mental health and substance abuse representatives, as well as the school and a parent representative. Activities are designed to increase social bonds of the at-risk child. Free transportation, infant/child care, hot meals and prizes are all incentives that helped FAST reach an 88% completion rate. The program has proven its success through an increase in children's attention spans and self-esteem. and a decrease in children's problem behaviors. The program facilitated families' connections with their communities and their schools, especially hard-to-reach, low income, multiple whole families.
    CONTACT: Linda Wheeler, Director, FAST: Families and Schools Together, Family Service America, 11700 West Lake Park Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53224-3099, 1-800-221-3726
  • Project ACHIEVE facilitated by the University of South Florida in Tampa is an educational reform program targeting academically and socially at-risk and underachieving students in pre-K through middle school settings. The program focuses on helping individual schools with large numbers of special education referrals and schools at-risk for multiple incidents of violence to strategically plan for and address their immediate and long-term student needs. Students learn social skills, problem-solving methods, and anger-reduction techniques. Teachers, parents and school administrators are trained to employ these techniques and a climate is created in which teachers, staff members and parents believe that EVERYONE is responsible for every student in the school building and community. Since its inception in August of 1990, the program has generated incredible results in its attempt to decrease referrals to special ed (75%) and disciplinary referrals to the principal's office (28%).
    CONTACT: Dr. Howard M. Knoff and George M. Batsche, Co-Directors, Institute for School Reform, Integrated Services, and Child Mental Health and Educational Policy, School Psychology Program, FAO 100U, Room 268, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-7750, (813) 974-3246
  • The Midwestern Prevention Project (MPP) is a drug-abuse prevention program that reaches the entire community population with a comprehensive school program, mass media efforts, a parent program, community organization, and health policy change. The program has been implemented in Kansas City and Indianapolis, where it is known locally as Project STAR (Students Taught Awareness and Resistance) and I-Star, respectively. The object is to decrease rates of onset and prevalence of drug use in young adolescents (ages 10-15), and to decrease drug use among parents and other community residents. MPP combines programs aimed at teaching youth drug-resistance skills with local school and community policy change aimed at institutionalizing prevention programming and limiting youth and community access to drugs. The program targets young adolescents and is initiated with whole populations of middle school (6th and 7th grade) students.
    CONTACT: Mary Ann Pentz, Ph. D., Center for Prevention Policy Medicine, University of Southern California, USC Norris Cancer Center, 141 East Lake Avenue, MS-44, Los Angeles, CA 90033-0800, (323) 865-0327
  • The Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) is a comprehensive, school-based program in over 110 NYC public schools that emphasizes conflict resolution and intercultural understanding. Through peer mediation, training for teachers, administrators and parents, and the RCCP curriculum of creative conflict resolution and intergroup relations, RCCP strives to achieve a long term reduction in violence and promote caring and cooperative behavior among children, adolescents and adults in and out of school. The program also promotes greater student academic achievement and a reduction in absentee rates for both teachers and students.
    CONTACT: Linda Lantieri, National Center, 163 Third Ave. #103, New York, NY 10003, (212) 509-0022

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