In October 1994, the Improving America’s Schools Act, which reauthorized education programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), revised and expanded drug education under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, which is title IV of ESEA. The purpose of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act is to create a comprehensive program to support National Education Goal Seven, which is “by the year 2000, every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning.” School year 1995-96 was the first school year in which the program was in effect. Safe and Drug-Free Schools grants have some of the broad characteristics of block grants that we have identified in previous work. For example, the act authorizes federal aid for a wide range of activities within a broadly defined functional area; recipients have substantial discretion to identify problems, design programs, and allocate resources; federally imposed requirements are limited to those necessary to ensure that national goals are being accomplished; and federal aid is distributed on the basis of a statutory formula. For such grants, accountability plays a critical role in balancing the potentially conflicting objectives of increasing state and local flexibility, while attaining certain national objectives. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools program is discussed as part of Education’s strategic plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (the Results Act). The Results Act requires executive agencies, including Education, to develop a 5-year strategic plan that includes long-term strategic goals, establish annual performance goals, and report on progress toward those goals and objectives. Education’s draft strategic plan for 1998-2002 includes an objective for safe, disciplined, and drug-free schools. Education’s statement of core strategies for achieving this objective make it clear that Safe and Drug- Free Schools will play a major role. In addition, the program is specifically cited in one of the six performance indicators that Education has chosen for assessing accomplishment of this objective. These indicators are to slow recently increasing rates of alcohol and drug use among school-aged achieve continuous decreases in criminal and violent incidents in schools by students between now and 2002; realize continuous improvement in the percentage of students reporting negative attitudes toward drug and alcohol use between now and 2002; improve prevention programs by having the majority of LEAs participating in the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program use prevention programs based on Education’s principles of effectiveness by 1999; ensure, by 1999, that all states collect data statewide on alcohol and drug use among students and violence in schools; and increase significantly by 2000 the number of teachers who are appropriately trained to address discipline problems. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, like other Education programs, is subject to other federal laws and generally applicable regulations in the use of its funds and program operations. For example, the Education Department General Administrative Regulations apply to the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities program as well as other grant programs. These regulations establish uniform requirements for administering Education grants and principles to determine costs for activities assisted by the Department. In addition, the Single Audit Act requires each state to conduct annual independent audits of programs in the state that receive federal funds. Some aspects of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program are also affected by the general provisions of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994. In particular, the Improving America’s Schools Act authorizes states to submit a single application for several federal education programs rather than separate program-specific applications. The new consolidated application process, which began with school year 1995-96 funds for Education programs, including the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, is intended to enhance program integration and reduce SEAs’ administrative burden. The Improving America’s Schools Act also requires Education to establish procedures and criteria under which a SEA may submit a consolidated application or plan. Education’s guidelines state that the consolidated plan should provide a framework for determining, within the context of a state’s school reform plan and other reform initiatives, how the federal programs in the consolidated plan will be used to help all children reach the state’s academic achievement goals. Education’s guidance for the consolidated applications requires states to include some, but not all, of the information required in comprehensive state plans by the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. States must include in their consolidated application their criteria for selecting LEAs for supplemental high-need funding, their plans for spending the 5-percent set aside for state-level program activities, and their process for approving local plans for funding. While the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program’s explicit goal is to reduce drug use and violence in schools, other programs are also likely to influence progress toward this national goal. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools program is one of several substance abuse- and violence- prevention programs funded by the federal government. For example, in fiscal year 1995, 70 federal programs were authorized to provide either substance abuse-prevention or violence-prevention services or both to the youth they serve. Thirty-four of these programs could provide both types of prevention services. Education, which administers the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, along with the Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice, administered most of these programs, 48 in all, but the rest of the programs were disbursed among 10 other federal agencies or entities. For these 70 programs, the fiscal year 1995 appropriations for services to youth totaled at least $2.4 billion. Multiple programs dispersed among several agencies creates the potential for inefficient services and ineffective use of funds. Although we have not fully examined these multiple programs, the implications of having multiple, unintegrated substance abuse- and violence-prevention programs might be like those for employment training programs—an area we have examined. In fiscal year 1995, we identified 163 federal employment training programs located in 15 departments and agencies. We recently concluded that consolidating these programs could probably reduce the cost of providing job training services because of the efficiencies achieved by eliminating duplicative administrative activities. Furthermore, consolidating similar programs could improve opportunities to increase service delivery and effectiveness. During the past several years, some members of the Congress, in response to constituents’ concerns, have questioned how some states and localities have used funding under both the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act and Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act programs. Allegations about misuse of funds have spanned diverse areas of program operation, from curriculum content to administrative expenses. In particular, questions have been raised about the extent to which these funds can be used to support programs, such as comprehensive health education programs, of which drug prevention is just one part; the types of activities sponsored by schools, such as alcohol-free dances; and expenditures for materials, such as pencils and tee-shirts imprinted with drug- and violence-prevention messages (see app. I for the results of our examination of some allegations). The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act establishes accountability mechanisms at the federal, state, and local levels. In combination, these mechanisms provide accountability for both spending funds (financial accountability) and reaching national, state, and locally defined goals (program accountability). The act specifies no mechanisms for direct federal oversight of local activities. Rather, the act’s mechanisms for federal oversight of the program focus on state-level programs and activities, while relying on state actions for local program oversight. The act establishes four types of accountability mechanisms: (1) an application process that requires approval of state and local plans; (2) state monitoring of LEAs’ programs; (3) reports on national, state, and local program effectiveness; and (4) LEAs’ use of advisory councils to develop program plans and assist program implementation. Education executes two of the four actions required by the act for ensuring accountability in the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program: approving state plan applications and reporting on national, state, and local program effectiveness. The act requires Education to review and ensure that state plans for Safe and Drug-Free Schools programs conform with federal requirements before providing funding to a state. The act also directs Education to use a peer review or similar process in reviewing state plans and provides detailed requirements for the contents of the state plan. For example, under the act, states must include in their plans (1) measurable goals and objectives for their drug- and violence- prevention programs, (2) a description of state-level program activities, (3) their plans for monitoring LEAs’ programs, and (4) the state’s criteria for identifying high-need districts that will receive supplemental funding for drug- and violence-prevention programs. The act also requires Education to gather data about school violence and drug abuse and to assess the effectiveness of drug- and violence- prevention activities under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program and other recent federal initiatives. Education expects to report the results of these assessments, along with its recommendations, to the Congress by January 1998. The act also requires, indirectly, that Education collect data from states on the effectiveness and outcomes of state and local programs. That is, under the act, LEAs must provide the state with information about their programs’ effectiveness, which states must then use in their required reports to Education. Under the act, states must use application approval, program monitoring, and reporting as accountability mechanisms for ensuring that Safe and Drug-Free Schools programs conform with federal requirements. States must review applications from LEAs to determine if they are eligible for funding. Through the application process, states must ensure that each LEA receiving funds has (1) measurable goals for its drug- and violence- prevention program, (2) objectively assessed students’ current use of drugs and alcohol as well as violence and safety problems in its schools, and (3) developed plans for a comprehensive drug- and violence- prevention program.