D.A.R.E. officers and other school based law enforcement officers are the first line of defense in America’s schools. Their job is to educate children but also to prevent school violence and intruders who might try and enter a school to harm children and others. Launched in 1983, D.A.R.E. is a comprehensive K-12 education program taught in thousands of schools in America and 52 other countries. D.A.R.E. curricula address drugs, violence, bullying, internet safety, and other high-risk circumstances that today are too often a part of students’ lives. D.A.R.E. envisions a world in which students everywhere are empowered to respect others and choose to lead lives free from violence, substance abuse, and other dangerous behaviors. 

D.A.R.E.’s "Keepin’ it REAL" Elementary School curriculum continues a more than thirty-year commitment to providing cutting edge instruction that helps prevent drug use by developing basic, core skills needed for safe and responsible choices…skills that extend well beyond drugs to healthy and mature choices in life. The course’s ten lessons are arranged in a scaffolding process, starting with the basics about responsibility and decision making and then building on each other allowing students to develop their own responses to real life situations. The very first lesson starts with responsibility and introduces decision making with subsequent lessons applying these skills in increasing complex ways to drug use and other choices in their lives. The program then culminates with each student writing a D.A.R.E. Report/Essay about what they have learned, and a D.A.R.E. Graduation. 

If you have any further questions about the D.A.R.E. program, would like to see how you can further support the program, or just wanted to reach out to the D.A.R.E. Officer please contact Lieutenant Jason Bradshaw.