April 21, 2005 -- U.S. Education Department Encourages Schools to Test for Drugs

In an announcement today, the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program in the U.S. Department of Education said that beginning this fiscal year, it will give priority to grant proposals that include testing of students for drug use. “We intend for these priorities to increase the use of drug testing as a means to deter student drug use,” the announcement said. The proposed priority would give federal assistance to eligible applicants to “develop and implement, or expand, school-based random or voluntary drug-testing programs for students in one or more grades 6 through 12.” In explaining the Education Department’s position, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools Deborah Price noted that President Bush in his 2004 State of the Union address stated that “Drug testing in our schools has proven to be an effective part of this effort [to reduce demand for illegal drugs]” and she pointed out that the Office of National Drug Control Policy has described student drug testing as “a remarkable grassroots tool” for drug abuse prevention. The proposed “requirements, priorities, and selection criteria” for future Safe and Drug-Free Schools grants appeared in the Federal Register for April 21 (Volume 70, Number 765). The Federal Register can be accessed online at wais.access.gpo.gov. Comments on the proposed priority are due on or before May 23. Today’s announcement was not a request for proposals, which will be published later.