Drug Education School

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Drug Education School

• Martha Lamb

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Program Establishment

• Intervention for persons convicted of first time
  drug offenses
• 15 hours of Education
• One time opportunity for expungement for persons
  under 21 years of age
• Self-supporting through 150.00 fee
• Statutory Authority G.S. 90-96

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History

• Established in statute in 1980s from the widely
  expressed concern that there should be a
  sentencing alternative for simple drug offenses,
  but one that requires more than merely a fine.
• Statewide Curriculum approved by Mental Health
  Commission
• State training and certification of Drug
  Education School Instructors established in rule
• Website for Instructors

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Course Objectives

• Reducing Prevalence of drug taking by modifying
  the behavior of course participants
• Reducing the impact of drug use on the criminal
  justice system

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Student Goal

• "As a result of the DES program intervention, the
  student will be able to identify a personal plan
  reflective of an informed self-assessment,
  resulting in the elimination, avoidance and/or
  reduction of substance usage and related
  consequences, including recidivism."

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Today in addition

• List maintained of Drug Education School
  instructors whose certification is tracked for
  currency
• Website maintained for communication and ongoing
  education of instructors
• Annual report developed from data submitted by
  instructors

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Annual report from 2004 -2005 of 2,687 students
shows

• 32.75 of DES students were in Mecklenburg
  County 18.61 were in Wake County.
• 72.65 of DES students were born in the 1980s.
• 75.33 of DES students were male.
• 62 of DES students were white.

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And

• 85.26 of DES students were single.
• 82.25 of DES students were employed either
  full-time or part-time, seasonally, or were
  students. An additional .04 described themselves
  as migrant.
• 44.47 of DES students had completed 12 grades of
  schooling 23.67 had completed more than this
  number of years of education.

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And

• 79.90 of DES students had not had prior
  participation in Drug Education School.
• 89.84 of DES students in the state passsed their
  DES classes.
• 82.10 of the DES students in the state were
  eligible for expungement of their legal charges.

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Quality Improvement

• Ongoing improvements of curriculum to be more in
  line with promising practices in the substance
  abuse field
• Enhancements to website
• Increased Capacity to track information
• DES Data report availability
• Moving towards online submission of information
  and tracking of outcomes from aggregate data

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I. Note Data shows that Drug Education School
students are single be aware, however, that in
DES rules is the following phrase

• Provisions shall be made for family members and
  guardians of students to audit classes however,
  such individuals shall not be counted in the
  maximum class size.

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II. Note Court Liaison

• (1) Each school shall develop and implement
  written procedures of liaison with the court.
  These procedures shall include at least the
  following

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• (A) the procedure used to obtain referral of
  offenders from the court(B) a provision that
  the school shall notify each student of the time,
  date, and location of assigned classes(C) the
  procedure for notifying the court of a students
  successful completion of the course
• (D) Communicating to students in writing the
  requirements for successfully completing the
  course and developing a procedure to notify the
  court of noncompliance cases.

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• (2) These procedures shall be agreed upon and
  signed by the designated employee of the school
  and, if possible, by the clerk of court, judge
  and district attorney.

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III. Note Class Schedule

• Students shall have an opportunity to complete
  classes within the 150 day time limit for the
  course specified in G.S. 90-96 and 90-113.14
  (Conditional Discharges and Expunction of Records
  for First offense).

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Recommendation

• Consider persons who become court involved with
  first drug use, first time drug offenders, for
  Drug Education School.
• For more information, access
• NCDES.org
• Martha Lamb at 919-715-2771

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Partners In Justice

• Information about People with Intellectual
• Disabilities in the Criminal Justice System
• For Judges and Attorneys

This project is supported by The Arc of North
Carolina and the NC Council on Developmental
Disabilities and the funds it receives through
P.L. 106-402, the Developmental Disabilities
Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000.