Hart district officials have more money to offer drug tests for parents who wish to enroll their child in the district’s voluntary program, officials said this week.

The expansion of the district’s CADRE program (Comprehensive Alcohol and Drug Reduction and Education) comes as Santa Clarita’s public junior high and high school district began to ask parents online about voluntary participation.

And while the high school district is looking to expand its drug-testing potential, the city’s voluntary substance-abuse education program, DFYinSCV, is looking to do away with drug-testing for its high school participants.

DFYinSCV is the city’s latest iteration of substance-abuse prevention education aimed at juveniles, and officials are eliminating the voluntary drug-testing aspect for high schoolers as part of a more-inclusive rebranding of the program formally known as DFYiT (Drug Free Youth in Town).

The differing stances, ironically, had to do with the perceived popularity of the drug-testing programs within their respective outreach audiences.

The talk also comes ahead of a Parent Resources Symposium hosted by the city, in conjunction with a panel of speakers: Captain Robert Lewis, of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station; Dr. Darrin Privett, of Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital; Sandy Logan, of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence; and Brenda Tumasone, an addiction counselor, who will all speak toward different aspects of substance abuse encountered through their respective fields.

The Parent Resources Symposium starts at 6 p.m. Wednesday, at The Centre (20880 Centre Pointe Parkway, Santa Clarita, CA 91350)

The Hart district’s CADRE

Hart district officials said parents loved the program, based on anecdotal evidence, as none of the information regarding the tracking of tested students or the results, are shared with the school, officials said. (As a results, William S. Hart Union High School District officials were unable to provide KHTS News how many parents have signed the necessary waiver so their children can be tested. Parents should click here for the form, if they’re interested in having their child partake in the random, voluntary program.)

“This year, it’s bumped up to $30,000 (from $25,000),” said Kathy Hunter, director of students services for the Hart district, discussing the additional funding district administrators set aside for the program. The district is charged approximately $21 per test, and the district distributes the funding available throughout its campuses, and uses the money on completely random tests (chosen anonymously from school ID numbers) until the funding is exhausted.

The district launched its comprehensive alcohol and drug reduction and education (CADRE) program with the help of the Sheriff’s Department and the city of Santa Clarita in August 2007. Since its creation, according to district officials, the program has expanded throughout the community and has been considered a model program. Some of the components to the program to prevent drug use are voluntary, random drug testing, counseling and assessment for treatment, referral and a three-day intensive intervention program for first-time offenders of alcohol- and drug-related incidents.

“We test as many kids as they possibly can for that budgeted amount,” she added. “The only person who receives the results of tests is the service provider and the parent — if the test comes back showing that it had a positive use of drugs.”

DFYinSCV

The city of Santa Clarita and Sheriff’s Department’s anti-substance abuse education initiative, DFYinSCV is making some changes in hopes of broadening its membership.

“The high school program is now not membership-based, but participation-based, and so the removal of the membership (waiver) removed the drug-testing portion,” said Jennifer Thompson, an arts and events administrator with the city of Santa Clarita who works with DFYinSCV.

DFYinSCV also is looking to focus its message to a younger crowd, taking part in more school assemblies for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

“With this new model, we’re looking to reach a lot more students than we have in the past,” said Yolanda Calderon, a Santa Clarita arts and events supervisor who oversees the school-based program.

For high schoolers, the message is going to be brought to them in a more direct manner, she said.

“We’re planning to bring speakers to the classroom… more personal stories, we’re also going to be doing on campus activities,” Calderon added, noting about 650 students signed up during the recent seventh-grade orientations in which DFYinSCV participated.

By making the program more voluntary, as well as provided more information to students at a younger age, the hope the message will have a more lasting impact, and the resulting decisions will be better, officials said.

Districtwide assemblies aimed at sixth-graders are part of the goal in the works with elementary schools, she added. “We’re planning to reach 10,500 students by October.”

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