Drug Test in School

In the case of the Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County et al. v. Earls et al., the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a drug-testing program for students involved in competitive extracurricular activities. Although the ruling allows schools to test greater numbers of students for drugs, it is not a blanket endorsement of drug testing for all students. Before implementing a drug-testing program, schools should engage legal counsel familiar with the law regarding student drug testing.

Thanks to advances in medical technology, researchers are now able to capture pictures of the human brain under the influence of drugs. As these images clearly show, the pleasurable sensations produced by some drugs are due to actual physical changes in the brain. Many of these changes are long-lasting, and some are irreversible. Scientists have recently discovered that the brain is not fully developed in early childhood, as was once believed, but is in fact still growing even in adolescence. Introducing chemical changes in the brain through the use of illegal drugs can therefore have far more serious adverse effects on adolescents than on adults.

Even so-called soft drugs can take a heavy toll. Marijuana’s effects, for example, are not confined to the “high”; the drug can also cause serious problems with memory and learning, as well as difficulty in thinking and problem solving. Use of methamphetamine or Ecstasy (MDMA) may cause long-lasting damage to brain areas that are critical for thought and memory. In animal studies, researchers found that four days of exposure to Ecstasy caused damage that persisted for as long as six or seven years. Kids on drugs cannot perform as well in school as their drug-free peers of equal ability. So if testing reduces students’ use of illicit drugs, it will remove a significant barrier to academic achievement.

Substance abuse should be recognized for what it is—a major health issue—and dealt with accordingly. Like vision and hearing tests, drug testing can alert parents to potential problems that continued drug use might cause, such as liver or lung damage, memory impairment, addiction, overdose, even death. Once the drug problem has been identified, intervention and then treatment, if appropriate, can begin.

Testing can also be an effective way to prevent drug use. The expectation that they may be randomly tested is enough to make some students stop using drugs—or never start in the first place.

That kind of deterrence has been demonstrated many times over in the American workplace. Employees in many national security and safety-sensitive positions—airline pilots, commercial truck drivers, school bus drivers, to name a few—are subject to pre-employment and random drug tests to ensure public safety. Employers who have followed the Federal model have seen a 67- percent drop in positive drug tests. Along with significant declines in absenteeism, accidents, and healthcare costs, they’ve also experienced dramatic increases in worker productivity.

While some students resist the idea of drug testing, many endorse it. For one thing, it gives them a good excuse to say “no” to drugs. Peer pressure among young people can be a powerful and persuasive force. Knowing they may have to submit to a drug test can help kids overcome the pressure to take drugs by giving them a convenient “out.” This could serve them well in years to come: Students represent the workforce of tomorrow, and eventually many will need to pass a drug test to get a job.

It is important to understand that the goal of school-based drug testing is not to punish students who use drugs. Although consequences for illegal drug use should be part of any testing program—suspension from an athletic activity or revoked parking privileges, for example—the primary purpose is to deter use and guide those who test positive into counseling or treatment. In addition, drug testing in schools should never be undertaken as a stand-alone response to the drug problem. Rather, it should be one component of a broader program designed to reduce students’ use of illegal drugs.

Drug use can quickly turn to dependence and addiction, trapping users in a vicious cycle that destroys families and ruins lives. Students who use drugs or alcohol are statistically more likely to drop out of school than their peers who don’t. Dropouts, in turn, are more likely to be unemployed, to depend on the welfare system, and to commit crimes. If drug testing deters drug use, everyone benefits—students, their families, their schools, and their communities.

Drug and alcohol abuse not only interferes with a student’s ability to learn, it also disrupts the orderly environment necessary for all students to succeed. Studies have shown that students who use drugs are more likely to bring guns and knives to school, and that the more marijuana a student smokes, the greater the chances he or she will be involved in physical attacks, property destruction, stealing, and cutting classes. Just as parents and students can expect schools to offer protection from violence, racism, and other forms of abuse, so do they have the right to expect a learning environment free from the influence of illegal drugs.

Schools should proceed with caution before testing students for drugs. Screenings are not 100 percent accurate, so every positive screen should be followed by a laboratory-based confirming test. Before going ahead with tests, schools should also have a good idea of precisely what drugs their students are using. Testing for just one set of illegal drugs when others pose an equal or greater threat would do little to address a school’s drug problem.

Confidentiality is a major concern with students and their parents. Schools have a responsibility to respect students’ privacy, so it is vital that only the people who need to know the test results see them—parents and school administrators, for example. The results should not be shared with anyone else, not even teachers.

Developing a Testing Program

What Should You Do Before You Begin Testing?

The decision of whether to implement a drug-testing program should not be left to one individual, or even to a school board. It should involve the entire community. In fact, by making the effort to include everyone, a school can greatly increase its chances of adopting a successful testing program.

It is not enough to have a general sense that student drug testing sounds like a good idea. Schools must first determine whether there is a real need for testing. Such a need can be determined from student drug-use surveys, reports by teachers and other school staff about student drug use, reports about drug use from parents and others in the community, and from discoveries of drug paraphernalia or drug residue at school.

If student drug use is found to be a significant problem, schools will want to consult early in their deliberations with an attorney familiar with laws regarding student drug testing. They should seek the advice of drug prevention and treatment professionals, and also contact officials at schools that already have drug-testing programs to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Schools considering testing will want plenty of public input. They should bring together members of the board of education, school administrators and staff, parents, community leaders, local healthcare agencies, local businesses, students, and anyone else who has an interest in reducing student drug use—even those who are against the idea. Listening to opponents and including their views can strengthen the testing program and improve its chances of success.

Many workplaces have had drug-testing programs in place for years, and recently some school districts have implemented programs for testing their athletes. Successful programs typically share a number of common elements, beginning with a clear written policy. Parents and teachers sign a statement declaring that they understand the policy, which is announced at least 90 days before testing begins. An effective policy addresses questions such as:

• Which students can be tested for drug use?
• What is the process for selecting students for testing?
• Who will conduct the test?
• What are the consequences of a positive drug test?
• Are steps clearly articulated for helping students who test positive for drugs?
• Will a second confirming test be done?
• Who pays for the test?
• Will subsequent positive tests result in suspension or expulsion from extracurricular activities?
• Are test results cumulative throughout a student’s tenure at the school, or is the slate wiped clean each year?
• What happens if a student refuses to take the test? Will refusal be construed as a drug-positive test?
• Who will see the test results, and how will confidentiality be maintained?
• How will parents be informed about positive test results?
• How does a student contest the results of a positive test result? And what mechanism is in place for students whose prescription medication triggers a positive reading?

Drug tests are used to determine whether a person has used alcohol or illegal drugs. Some tests show recent use only, while others indicate use over a longer period. Each type of test has different applications and is used to detect a specific drug or group of drugs. The Federal Drug-Free Workplace program, which serves as a model for accuracy and quality assurance in drug testing, relies on a urine test designed to detect the use of marijuana, opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and phencyclidine (PCP). Urine tests can also be used to detect alcohol, LSD, and cotenine, the major metabolite of nicotine.

Following are summaries of the most commonly used tests:

Urine

Results of a urine test show the presence or absence of specific drugs or drug metabolites in the urine.Metabolites are drug residues that remain in the system for some time after the effects of the drug have worn off. A positive urine test does not necessarily mean the subject was under the influence of drugs at the time of the test. Rather, it detects and measures use of a particular drug within the previous few days.

Hair

Analysis of hair may provide a much longer “testing window” for the presence of drugs and drug metabolites, giving a more complete drug-use history that goes back as far as 90 days. Like urine testing, hair testing does not provide evidence of current impairment, only past use of a specific drug. Hair testing cannot be used to detect alcohol.

Sweat Patch

Another type of drug test consists of a skin patch that measures drugs and drug metabolites in perspiration. The patch, which looks like a large adhesive bandage, is applied to the skin and worn for some length of time. A gas-permeable membrane on the patch protects the tested area from dirt and other contaminants. The sweat patch is sometimes used in the criminal justice system to monitor drug use by parolees and probationers, but so far it has not been widely used in workplaces or schools.

Oral Fluids

Traces of drugs, drug metabolites, and alcohol can be detected in oral fluids, the generic term for saliva and other material collected from the mouth. Oral fluids are easy to collect—a swab of the inner cheek is the most common way. They are harder to adulterate or substitute, and collection is less invasive than with urine or hair testing. Because drugs and drug metabolites do not remain in oral fluids as long as they do in urine, this method shows more promise in determining current use and impairment.

Breath Alcohol

Unlike urine tests, breath-alcohol tests do detect and measure current alcohol levels. The subject blows into a breath-alcohol test device, and the results are given as a number, known as the Blood Alcohol Concentration, which shows the level of alcohol in the blood at the time the test was taken. In the U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, an alcohol level of 0.04 is high enough to stop someone from performing a safety-sensitive task for that day.

The five-drug urine test used in the Federal Drug-Free Workplace Program does not detect all drugs used by young people. For example, it does not detect so-called “club” drugs such as gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and Ecstasy, for example, although other urine tests can determine use of these drugs, and hair tests can easily detect Ecstasy use. No standard test, however, can detect inhalant abuse, a problem that can have serious, even fatal, consequences. (Inhalant abuse refers to the deliberate inhalation or sniffing of common household products—gasoline, correction fluid, felt-tip markers, spray paint, air freshener, and cooking spray, to name a few—with the purpose of “getting high.”)

Administering the Test

What Can Students Expect?

Drug testing is commonly a four-step process: collection, screening, confirmation, and review.When called in to take a drug test, the student is met by a trained “collector,” or test administrator, who gives instructions and receives the specimen. It is also the collector’s job to complete the chain-of-custody form, which keeps track of where the specimen has been and who has handled it throughout the process. The form ensures that the specimen was handled properly and in such a way that does not call its source or the test results into question.

If the student is providing a urine sample, a temperature strip is put on the collection container to guard against a substitute sample. A tamper-evident tape is put over the specimen container, and then the student is asked to initial it and verify the chain-of-custody form.

Next, the specimen is screened for drugs or drug metabolites. If the screening test is positive, the test will be confirmed by a second, more exacting test. All confirmed positive tests should then be reviewed by a physician or nurse with knowledge of substanceabuse disorders to rule out legitimate prescription drug use.

Some specimens are screened at the collection site, and the initial results are known within minutes; others are screened at a laboratory. All negative screens—those that show no drugs or drug metabolites—are eliminated from further consideration.

Specimens that test positive for drugs in the initial screen are examined further in the laboratory through a second analytic technique called gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), which is actually a combination of two specialized techniques. Technicians use gas chromatography to separate the various substances in the specimen, then they make a positive identification through mass spectrometry.

Alcohol-specific tests may be performed entirely at the collection location if appropriate breath-alcohol testing equipment and procedures are used. Some oral fluid tests can also be used to obtain an immediate initial test result, with the positive screen going on to a laboratory for confirmation.

A positive test result does not automatically mean the student uses illegal drugs. In fact, positive results are sometimes triggered by other, legal substances. Certain over-the-counter medications, for example, can cause a positive reading for amphetamines. So when the GC/MS confirmation test comes back positive, it is important for a doctor, nurse, or other specialist to review the results and determine if illicit drugs are indeed the culprit.

In the Federal Drug-Free Workplace Program, a medical review officer is required to go over positive test results with the donor and determine if there could be a legitimate explanation. Everything is done confidentially, and safeguards are in place to make sure workers are not falsely labeled drug users when their positive test results are found to have a legitimate cause.

Schools should also take care that a student’s confidentiality and privacy are not violated, and that students who test positive because they are taking prescription medications are not wrongly branded as drug users. It bears repeating that the purpose of drug testing is to keep students from using drugs, and to help or refer to treatment those who may be drug dependent.

Results of a positive drug test should not be used merely to punish a student. Drug and alcohol use can lead to addiction, and punishment alone may not necessarily halt this progression. However, the road to addiction can be blocked by timely intervention and appropriate treatment.

When a positive test result has been reviewed and confirmed for illegal drug use, the school's crucial next step is to contact the parents and help them stop their child's drug use. Parents play a key role in drug-abuse prevention, so they need lots of guidance and support. They also need to know that anger, accusations, and harsh punishment could make the situation worse. The best approach for parents is usually to stay firm and to treat their child with respect as they work together as a family to change his or her behavior.

After involving the parents, school officials may refer the student to a trained substance-abuse counselor, who can perform a drug assessment and determine whether the child needs treatment or other specialized help. For young people who use drugs occasionally, a few words from the counselor or parents—coupled with the prospect of future drug tests—may be enough to put an end to the drug use. For frequent users or those in danger of becoming drug dependent, treatment will likely be necessary.

Many schools require drug-positive students to enroll in a drug education course or activity. Some also offer Student Assistance Programs, whose trained counselors are linked to resources in the greater community and can help students cope with a variety of problems, including substance abuse. In any case, the school will want to perform follow-up drug tests on students with positive results to make sure they stay drug free.

Many drug-using students are aware of techniques that supposedly detoxify their systems or mask their drug use. Some drink large amounts of water just before the test to dilute their urine; others add salt, bleach, or vinegar to their sample. In some cases, users call on their drug-free friends to leave bottles of clean urine in the bathroom stalls.

Popular magazines and Internet sites give advice on how to dilute urine samples, and there are even companies that sell clean urine or products designed to distort test results. A number of techniques and products are focused on urine tests for marijuana, but masking products increasingly are becoming available for tests of hair, oral fluids, and multiple drugs.

Most of these masking products do not work, cost a lot of money, and are almost always easily identified in the testing process. But even if the specific drug is successfully masked, the product itself can be detected, in which case the student using it would become an obvious candidate for additional screening and attention.

Laboratories all over the country perform drug tests, but not all of them produce consistently accurate and reliable results. Many schools choose labs from among those certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to perform urine testing for Federal agencies. A list of SAMHSA-certified labs is available on the Internet at http://workplace.samhsa.gov/ResourceCenter/lablist.htm.

Before deciding on a laboratory, schools should carefully assess the drug problem in their community. The standard Federal workplace test screens for the presence of marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, and PCP. But if a school faces a significant threat from Ecstasy, methamphetamine, ketamine, GHB, or some other drug, administrators will need to be sure that any laboratory they are considering is also capable of testing for these drugs.

The price of drug testing varies according to the type of test and the drugs involved, but generally the cost is between $10 and $30 per test, with hair testing somewhat higher. The price for onsite alcohol tests usually ranges from $1 to $10 per test.

Some schools have paid for drug tests through Federal grants from SAMHSA or the U. S. Department of Education’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program. Others get money for testing from private foundations.When school-based programs begin to expand, testing providers will likely start offering volume price incentives.