Purpose:

The U.S. Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program (SDFS), in cooperation with the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, has established the Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-Free Schools (SDDFS) Expert Panel. The 15-member SDDFS Expert Panel is composed of education practitioners; researchers; evaluators; program developers; and representatives from local and state education agencies, businesses, institutions of higher education, and from medical and legal communities.

The purpose of the Panel is to oversee a process for identifying and designating as promising and exemplary school-based programs that promote safe, disciplined, and drug-free schools. Once programs are designated as exemplary or promising, the Department will disseminate information about the programs and will encourage their use in new sites. The Expert Panel initiative is a way of enhancing prevention programming by making schools aware of alternative programs that have proven their effectiveness when judged against rigorous criteria.

Exemplary and Promising Programs:

• 2001 Exemplary and Promising School-based Programs that promote safe, disciplined and drug-free schools-The Department and the Expert Panel on Safe, Discipline, and Drug-Free Schools have identified nine exemplary and thirty-three promising programs.

• The Expert Panel on Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-Free Schools reviewed programs in the Spring of 2000.

• 1999 Guidelines for Submitting Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-Free Schools Programs for Designation as Promising or Exemplary [[PDF*]]

Ann Weinheimer
Safe, Discipline, and Drug-Free Expert Panel
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202
Telephone: 202-708-5939
FAX: 202-260-7767
Email: ann.weinheimer@ed.gov