CS 340457 07/19/2023

Schools Supporting Students to Quit Tobacco Use as 

an Alternative to Suspension: Lessons from the Field

Background

In 2022, more than 3 million U.S. middle and high school students reported having 

used a commercial* tobacco product in the past 30 days.1 Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), 

sometimes called vapes, continue to be the most used tobacco product among these 

students. Because e-cigarettes can deliver high levels of nicotine and come in flavors that 

appeal to young people, vaping puts them at risk for nicotine addiction.2 Nicotine exposure 

during adolescence can harm the parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, 

and impulse control.2

Evidence shows that tobacco industry advertising and promotion influences young people to 

start using tobacco.3 Tobacco companies have used marketing tactics to target young people 

and specifically members of certain population groups, including Black, American Indian 

and Alaska Native, LGBTQ+, and youth with lower socioeconomic status. Young people are 

exposed to tobacco advertising online and in retail stores, and the addictive tobacco products 

are marketed in kid-friendly flavors such as “Rainbow Candy” and “Fizzy Peach.” Most 

young people who vape use flavored e-cigarettes, particularly fruity and sweet flavors. A 

2019 study across 30 U.S. cities found that, on average, 63% of public schools were located 

within 1,000 feet of a tobacco retailer.4

Creating Positive, Safe, and Supportive Environments

in Schools

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education released Guiding Principles: A Resource Guide for 

Improving School Climate and Discipline. This resource for schools helps to create positive, 

safe, and supportive environments that can prevent and change inappropriate behaviors. 

This guidance also recommends using suspension only as a last resort for serious violations.5

In fact, school suspension can have long-term impacts. Students who are suspended miss 

time in the classroom and are at risk for not graduating on time, repeat a grade, drop out, 

or become involved with the criminal justice system.6 Suspensions also affect a greater 

proportion of students of color, students receiving special education services, students from 

low-income families, LGBTQ+ students, and male students.7

Most young people who vape want to quit.8 Suspending students who violate a school’s 

tobacco-free policy is unlikely to help them quit tobacco use, and could alter their academic 

and future goals.5 Because young people have been unfairly targeted with marketing 

tactics, the science of addiction, and long-term consequences of suspension, schools should 

provide a supportive environment and encouragement to quit using tobacco products, not 

suspension.6

RESOURCES

Electronic Cigarettes

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

resource about the risk and health effects of

using e-cigarettes.

Discipline Is Not the Answer: Better 

Approaches to On-Campus Student 

Tobacco Use

Truth Initiative® resource for helping administrators 

handle violations of tobacco-free school policy by 

supporting students to help them quit tobacco use. 

Guiding Principles: A Resource Guide for 

Improving School Climate and Discipline

U.S. Department of Education resource for

creating disciplinary policies and practices that 

prepare students for life.

Student Commercial Tobacco Use 

in Schools: Alternative Measures

Public Health Law Center resource for handling 

student tobacco use and nicotine addiction

without expulsion or disciplinary measures. 

Quit Vaping

Teen.smokefree.gov resource for helping

students quit e-cigarettes.

Tobacco-Free District Model Policy

Alliance for Healthier Generation’s guide for 

creating a healthy environment for students with 

model policy, administrative rules, and student 

code of conduct language. 

Public Health Law Center

Guide for implementing and enforcing

a K-12 tobacco-free campus.

This is Quitting Program

Truth Initiative® free mobile program designed

to help students quit e-cigarettes. 

* “Commercial tobacco” means harmful products that are made and sold by tobacco 

companies. It does not include “traditional tobacco” used by indigenous groups for 

religious or ceremonial purposes.
States in Action

School districts across the country are implementing tobacco prevention programs 

as an alternative to out-of-school suspension for students who violate a school’s 

tobacco-free policy. Below are two examples of alternative-to-suspension programs 

in action. 

FLORIDA

The Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida works with the School District of Palm Beach County’s 

Tobacco Prevention Program to develop, administer, and promote an online three-hour 

tobacco prevention course on the dangers of tobacco product use. The program is an 

alternative to out-of-school suspension for students who violate tobacco-free campus 

policies. The course is offered in schools across the state. To take the course, a designated 

school-based staff member provides an enrollment link to students who then independently 

enroll on the course website. 

Since August 2020, 15,431 students from 687 schools have enrolled in the course, 

with a 69% completion rate.

An example of a school district implementing the course as an alternative to suspension is 

Duval County Public Schools, located in Jacksonville, Florida. The school district educates 

more than 129,000 students and includes the tobacco education course in their district’s 

middle and high school Code of Student Conduct handbook. Students who violate the 

district’s tobacco-free campus policy are required to the take the course at no cost.

NEW JERSEY

The New Jersey Tobacco Control Program, with New Jersey Prevention Network and 

Tobacco-Free for a Healthy New Jersey, offers the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer 

Center’s ASPIRE tobacco prevention program. The online program offers courses that 

explain the dangers of tobacco use and nicotine addiction and provides strategies for 

quitting tobacco use. The course is designed for middle and high school students, at no 

cost. After taking the course, 95% of the students learned new facts about tobacco and 

have a greater understanding of how tobacco use affects their health.9

Schools are encouraged to offer the course as an alternative to out-of-school suspension 

for students who are caught with addictive tobacco products on school grounds. The New 

Jersey Tobacco Control Program establishes ASPIRE accounts and provides technical support. 

School personnel enroll students who take the course at their own pace. 

Since 2019, 120 New Jersey schools have used ASPIRE, and more than

930 students have completed the course. 

References

1. Park-Lee E, Ren C, Cooper M, Cornelius M, 

Jamal A, Cullen KA. Tobacco Product Use 

Among Middle and High School Students – 

United States, 2022. Morbidity and Mortality 

Weekly Report, 2022; 71:45.

2. U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Services. E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and 

Young Adults. A Report of the Surgeon 

General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services, Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention, National 

Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and 

Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and 

Health, 2016.

3. Perks SN, Armour B, Agaku IT. Cigarette 

Brand Preference and Pro-Tobacco Advertising 

Among Middle and High School Students—

United States, 2012–2016. Morbidity and 

Mortality Weekly Report 2018;67(4):119–24 

[accessed 2023 Feb 24].

4. Aspire Center Organization. Advancing 

Science & Practice in the Retail Environment. 

Executive Summary: Retail Tobacco Density & 

Access 

5. U.S. Department of Education, Guiding 

Principles: A Resource Guide for Improving 

School Climate and Discipline, Washington, 

D.C., 2014. 

6. Public Health Law Center. Student 

Commercial Tobacco Use in Schools - 

Alternative Measures | Public Health Law 

Center. Accessed April 3, 2023. 

7. Leung-Gagné M, McCombs J, Scott C, Losen 

DJ. (2022). Pushed out: Trends and disparities 

in out-of-school suspension. Learning Policy 

Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/235.277. 

Accessed April 3, 2023.

8. Gentzke AS, Wang TW, Cornelius M, Park-Lee 

E, Ren C, Sawdey MD, Cullen KA, Loretan C, 

Jamal A, Homa DM. Tobacco Product Use and 

Associated Factors Among Middle and High 

School Students – National Youth Tobacco 

Survey, United States, 2021. Morbidity and 

Mortality Weekly Report, 2022; 71(No. SS5):1–29.

9. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer 

Center. A Smoking Prevention Interactive 

Experience (ASPIRE). Accessed April 28, 2023.

smokefree.gov