Soon after the DARE program was eliminated from the Franklin school district's budget, Franklin's middle school coordinator (MSC) contacted the district's four middle school principals, as well its assistant superintendent, to discuss the need for a new research-based substance use prevention program. The administrators met and agreed that a districtwide task force was needed to address the issue. The MSC assembled a task force comprised of the assistant principal, health educators, a parent from each middle school, city-wide health specialists, and the police department youth officers who had conducted the DARE program.

The task force agreed to meet twice a month throughout the school year (10 meetings total) to develop a set of recommendations for the selection and implementation of a substance use prevention program that met the federal standards for Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Each administrator and teacher participating in the committee was offered a stipend of $25 per hour.

Reasons for convening the task force included the following:

• DARE was no longer being offered to the district's fifth graders.

• Substance use and abuse among youth in the community was a significant concern.

• To become eligible for federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools grants, schools were now required to implement research-based programs.

• There was growing evidence that participation in high-risk and unhealthy behaviors was linked to school performance problems.

During early meetings, task force members considered how they could become agents of change in the school district. They decided that, in order to overcome potential resistance at the system, school, and personal levels, they would need to become better informed about current prevention practices. This would help them become stronger advocates for prevention.

First, they looked back at the kind of prevention education they themselves had received as adolescents. Then they examined the need for substance use prevention by reading some student journal entries that described how drug and alcohol use were perceived by the district's youth. They also reviewed the results of the district's most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which provided local statistics about substance use and violence.

After the group had digested this data, the MSC invited a prevention specialist from the state Department of Education to talk to the task force about research-based prevention programs and some criteria they might use for selection. Following his presentation, the group brainstormed possible program goals and expected student outcomes for the future program, as well as some of the specific components the program should include, for example:

• Skill-building, including decision-making, communication, and refusal skills

• Normative education to develop accurate knowledge of social norms regarding substance use

• Opportunities to practice skills

• Parental involvement

• Instruction in more than one grade level

They also identified the following strategies as important to include:

• Anger management

• Stress reduction

• Media literacy

• Goal-setting

• Building connections

• Values clarification with parents

• Coping with loss and trauma

After they had developed these lists, the MSC asked the police department youth officers to talk about the DARE program, so that task force members could have a sense of what was being replaced. Next, the MSC invited a coordinator from a community similar to Franklin to talk about the research-based program currently in use in their middle schools. The visiting coordinator discussed the process his district had gone through to select the program as well as some of the challenges that had emerged during implementation. He talked about how the curriculum matches the state health frameworks and the assessment tools they use. He also described several other parent, professional, and community-based initiatives of which his district was a part.

Midway through the 10 meetings, the MSC asked members to evaluate the process and work of the task force. She then presented two scenarios for how members could proceed with curricula review: They could either review each curriculum in its entirety, or they could participate in a "structured tour" of those programs that met the committee's criteria. Members unanimously chose the structured tour. One of the health teachers was given extra time to summarize the four identified curricula. He then presented these summaries while members looked over sample activities and materials.

After each "tour," task force members completed feedback sheets that the MSC reviewed and summarized; the MSC then shared the summaries with the whole group. When all curricula had been toured, the task force broke up into school-specific groups to identify potential implementation issues, for example:

• Fear of losing the prevention programs they had created or were already using

• Worry about their roles in the school, especially given current budget concerns (a vote was pending on a citywide tax limitation override)

• Turf issues among the four middle schools

The MSC also had individual conversations with group members so that she could begin to address some of the concerns raised.

At the end of the year, the task force recommended using a combination of three research-based prevention programs, since no single program met all of the district's needs. The teachers on the task force agreed to spend the summer adapting the programs, as needed, for the middle schools. The programs would be taught by these experienced and knowledgeable educators, in collaboration with youth officers and high school peer educators.

Due to differences in school schedules and staffing, the selected programs would be piloted in one school, initially. Eventually, the program would be scaled up to full implementation in all middle schools and grades.