DARE Program finshed in Suffolk County

Posted in the New York Times today, there was an article about the recent change to the DARE program in Suffolk County. The New York County has decided to get rid of the DARE program and replace it with a new program called Enhanced Health Smart Curriculum. This new curriculum will give students information about gangs, gambling, bullying, driving, dating violence, internet safety and identity theft. The new program will be offered to students ranging from Kindergarten to 12th grade as apposed to the DARE program which was only for 5th - 7th grade. The information will be taught be the school's teachers after they have had a 1/2 day of training. The DARE program that has been around for about 20 years, has always been conducted by police officers, which were thought to make a significant difference drug use. In a study conducted in 2002 however, the DARE program has showed to have no significant difference in the amount of drug use among students.

I think that the new program will be very beneficial and will help students understand multiple levels of problems. The one thing I think they should change is having other people come in to do the program instead of the teachers. I think students would respond better to outside people who have an impact on the community, such as police officers etc. Overall I think all counties should adopt a similar program such as this one.