Archive: Letter from Substance Abuse Organizations on Tiahrt Amendment

Partnership for a Drug-Free America
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America

July 20, 2001

Dear Senator:

Although we believe in the right of parents to know what their children are being taught in schools, a right the Tiahrt amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (HR 1) clearly aims to protect, certain language in this amendment requiring written parental consent for students to take part in in-school surveys will produce unintended consequences that could cripple the efforts of organizations such as Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) and ultimately hurt parents, kids and the nation’s drug prevention efforts.

CADCA (serving more than 5,000 coalition members nationwide), the Partnership, and hundreds of other prevention, treatment and education-based programs depend on in-school research to monitor youth substance abuse trends so they can develop effective strategies and programs targeting youth. As proposed, the language of the Tiahrt/Graham amendment would severely impede:

The representative accuracy of collected data;
Needs assessments and evaluations;
The identification and tracking of substance abuse trends;
Strategy and program development
The ability to gauge effectiveness of community-based prevention programs.

Further, the amendment would place key, federally funded prevention programs at risk: Congress requires accountability of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (NYADMC) through performance measurement. While the research instrument measuring the program is applied in homes, the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) and the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study provide the only outside, objective measurements of the effect of the campaign, measurements that can be used to corroborate NYADMC research findings. The Tiahrt/Graham amendment would cripple the ability of PATS and MTF to provide such corroboration. In addition, both the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities programs of the Department of Education and the Drug-Free Communities Support program in ONDCP rely on school-based surveys to track local substance abuse trends among youth.

While no one can question the importance of protecting the ability of parents to know what is going on in their children’s schools, by effectively eliminating the ability to research the attitudes and behaviors of children concerning substance use and abuse, the legislation as proposed will make it more difficult for parents and communities to know and effectively address what is going on in their children’s lives. Independent research into the attitudes and behaviors of children regarding substance abuse can help increase parents’ knowledge in necessary and valuable ways. Congress should avoid well-intentioned legislation with unintended consequences for the ability of parents and communities to deal with youth drug use.

Sincerely,

Richard D. BonnettePresident & CEO
Partnership for a Drug-Free America

Arthur T. DeanMajor General, U.S. Army, Retired
Chairman & CEO
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America