Voluntary, Randomized, Student Drug-Testing: Impact in a Rural, Low-Income, Community.

Abstract Illegal drug use and abuse by the nation's secondary school students is a continuing public health issue and this is especially true for students living in rural, low-income areas where access to intervention and treatment services is often limited. To address this issue, some school districts have implemented voluntary, randomized, student drug-testing (VRSDT) programs. The quantitative findings of this quasi-experimental study revealed that VRSDT had no significant impact on students' self-reported rates of illegal drug use. However, the study's qualitative results indicated that a VRSDT program may be more than just a primary prevention program. Because of this, school administrators interviewed during this study indicated they felt VRSDT of students was still worth the costs and efforts to implement. INTRODUCTION Since 2001, the Department of Education has provided nearly $3.45 billion to state and local agencies to help ensure schools are safe and drug free (Cooper, 2005). These resources have been allocated, in part, because of research that documents alcohol and illicit substance use among adolescents is a major public health concern (Johnson, O'Malley, Bachman, Schulenberg, 2005). Researchers have found that illegal drug use interferes with students' ability to think clearly, reduces academic achievement, reduces motivation and self-discipline, and negatively impacts school climate (National Commission on Drug-Free Schools, 1990; Steinberg, 1996). Further, research has documented that excessive alcohol use by adolescents has a direct and negative impact on brain development and behavioral control (Caldwell, Schweinsburg, Nagel, Barlett, Brown, & Tapert, 2005). Geographic location plays a role in adolescent substance use. The National Survey of Drug Use noted that illicit drug use in rural communities was exceeding that of larger urban centers (Maxwell, Tackett-Gibson, & Dyer, 2006; National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 2000). According to the work of Shears, Edwards and Stanley (2006), adolescent use rates in rural communities are equal to or greater than urban use rates for all illicit drugs except ecstasy and marijuana. The reasons for this disparity are not definitively known; however, the fact that urban school districts have more full-time substance abuse prevention counselors (Falck, Wang, Carlson, & Siegal, 2002), more mental health services (Slade, 2003) and more treatment services does play a part (Hutchison & Blakely, 2003; Maxwell et al., 2006). Drug use and abuse is clearly a major public health concern for local, state and federal authorities. In 2004, President George W. Bush dedicated millions of dollars in federal funding to help schools implement VRSDT programs. To date, however, the effectiveness and efficacy of VRSDT programs has not been fully determined due to two main factors: 1) school districts just recently started to implement VRSDT; and 2) many researchers have assumed that all drug-testing programs are similar. Recent United States Supreme Court decisions have empowered many school districts to consider VRSDT programs as part of a comprehensive drug abuse prevention effort. Prior to the Supreme Court's Vernonia (1995) decision, "fewer than 20 schools in the country tested students for drugs and alcohol" (DuPont, Campbell, & Mazza, 2002, p., 3). However, by 2002 "as many as 1000 school districts in at least 38 states and Puerto Rico instituted student drug testing programs" (DuPont et al., 2002, p. 3). Vernonia and a 2002 decision (i.e., Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomic County v. Earls) brought about a significant interest in using VRSDT for students taking part in after-school activities, including school athletics. This rapid increase, which was driven by the belief that reducing substance use within this group of students, who were perceived by some to have a heightened social status, would translate into reduced substance use by all students (Goldberg et al. …