Pubdate: Wed, 11 Feb 2004
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2004 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Amanda Vogt
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

DARE TRAINING CENTER TO CLOSE

State Police Blame Funding Problems

Due to a lack of federal funding, the state's only DARE training center is 
being disbanded, leaving about 60 percent of Illinois DARE officers without 
training in the program's revised drug-prevention education curriculum, 
which launches nationwide in the fall.

"We're changing our focus because federal funds for the program have 
dwindled," Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Lincoln Hampton said of the 
agency's Drug Abuse Resistance Education training center. "We're putting 
former DARE employees in divisions like patrol, where they'll have more 
direct contact with the public."

Christy Pace, president of the Illinois DARE Officers Association, blames 
state officials, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, for the center's demise. 
Officers who teach DARE to elementary or middle school pupils would have to 
go out of state for training--a hurdle that Pace fears will trip up many 
programs.

"Many local police chiefs won't want to pay to send their officers out of 
state," she said.

As recently as two months ago, Pace said, an official with the Illinois 
Department of Human Services told DARE officials that $600,000 budgeted for 
training for 2004 would be forthcoming.

"Then last week we find out [they've] pulled the plug," Pace said, adding 
that the closing of the center will cancel 11 training sessions scheduled 
into April.

While declining to say whether DARE had been promised any money for 2004, 
Human Services spokesman Tom Green said $600,000 from the 
general-prevention fund was being directed to other programs.

For example, a non-profit group helping establish Project X, the governor's 
program designed to eliminate use of the club drug Ecstasy, will get about 
$68,000 to begin its work.

This year, the state submitted a request for prevention program funding to 
the U.S. Department of Education's Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools, 
Green said. Since DARE hasn't met federal grant criteria since 1998, when 
the government omitted the program from an eligibility list of 
research-based programs with proven track records, state officials decided 
to focus on securing funding for programs that do, he said.

This month, police departments in St. Charles and Hanover Park eliminated 
their DARE programs, officials said. Geneva and McHenry County are among 
localities inching toward replacing the program with an alternative 
drug-education program, officials said.

"We have one DARE officer currently," said Geneva Lt. Joe Frega.

"We'd save $48,000 if, instead of hiring a new patrol officer, we took our 
DARE officer and put him on patrol. It's a dollars-and-cents thing."

None of the DARE officers with the Arlington Heights Police Department has 
received training in the new curriculum, said Cmdr. Richard Neidrich.

"We were waiting to see what the state would do," he said. "I'm very 
disappointed."

Although the DARE program remains popular with the community, the 
department might have to make changes in it because of local budgetary 
constraints, Neidrich said.

Hoffman Estates Sgt. Rich Russo said the department's two DARE officers 
have not been trained in the new curriculum, and because of budgetary 
concerns, the department probably won't send the officers for recertification.

"We'll continue to teach the old curriculum," he said.

Last fiscal year, when former Gov. George Ryan earmarked $600,000 for DARE, 
down from $1.9 million the previous year, state police began charging local 
governments for DARE workbooks, officials said.

At the time, DARE officials predicted half the schools and police 
departments in the state would drop the program by year's end. A handful of 
communities, including Crystal Lake, Evanston and Naperville, did.

Los Angeles-based DARE America is attempting to salvage the program, which 
began more than 20 years ago and still reaches 20 million children a year, 
said spokesman Ralph Lochridge.

While the umbrella organization works to qualify the new curriculum for 
federal funding, it also is trying to secure temporary funding one state at 
a time, Lochridge said.

Pace fears it might prove too late for Illinois.

The kids will suffer most if DARE is eliminated and not replaced with 
another drug-education prevention program, Pace said.

"DARE ... gives police officers an opportunity to build up a rapport with 
children who only see us in a negative light," she said.

Pupils in Hanover Park schools will not be taught drug-prevention education 
by police officers next year, said Marlene Berman, a drug-prevention 
education specialist with Elgin-based Unit School District 46.

"I don't know who will be teaching the DARE curriculum there. Maybe I'll do 
it," she said. "But it won't be a priority and it won't have the same 
impact coming from someone not wearing a uniform."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman