DARE is a substance use prevention education program designed to equip elementary school children with skills for resisting peer pressure to experiment with tobacco, drugs, and alcohol. This unique program uses uniformed law enforcement officers to teach a formal curriculum to students in a classroom setting. DARE gives special attention to the fifth grade to prepare students for entry into junior high and high school, where they are most likely to encounter pressure to use drugs. Typically, officers are assigned to each school for a full day. Thus, one officer can serve up to five schools per week per semester, or ten schools in a two-semester school year.
Officers are to be regarded as members of the school faculty.
This means that, while at school as DARE instructors, they can be called upon to act in a law enforcement role ONLY in an emergency. In addition to their formal classroom teaching, DARE officers spend time on the playground, in the cafeteria, and at student assemblies to interact with students informally. They may organize a soccer match, play basketball, or chat with students over lunch. In this way students have an opportunity to become acquainted with the officer as a trusted friend who is interested in their happiness and welfare. Students occasionally tell the officer about problems such as abuse, neglect, alcoholic parents, or relatives who use drugs.