Pennsylvania Drug Curriculum: Schools Teach Kindergartners About Drug Use

A county in Pennsylvania is taking a new step in drug prevention by offering a course on the subject in schools starting next fall. Northumberland County public schools will introduce Too Good for Drugs, a comprehensive educational program primarily focused on creating drug awareness and prevention for students, according to reports.

The course is aimed at character building and equipping students with decision-making skills that can be impactful as they get older and are faced with peer pressure and other life situations that could result in drug use. The interactive program will be taught at seven schools within Northumberland County including Milton, Mount Carmel, Line Mountain, Shikellamy, Shamokin and Warrior Run public schools and Our Lady of Lourdes private school.

Kerry Davis, the program's prevention specialist, told Pennsylvania’s Daily Item that the program will serve approximately 12,000 students in each grade level, starting with kindergarten. Lesson plans will include more games and role-playing lessons as opposed to tests and long-winded lectures. Students will engage in activities that will explain and discuss the effects of drug use but they will also learn how to set and pursue goals, deal with peer pressure, learn conflict resolution skills, stress management and learn how to analyze media influence.

Courses in most schools won’t begin until the fall of 2017 while a few others will roll out Too Good for Drugs lesson plans as soon as students return from winter break in 2017. The courses will include 10 30-minute lessons for elementary school kids and 55-minute lessons for middle and high school students.

Previously the state offered prevention programs and presentations sponsored by Narcotics Overdose Prevention and Education, particularly teaching middle and high school students the dangers of opioid use. However, the $70,000 Too Good for Drugs program is the first drug prevention course to be offered in Pennsylvania schools for all grade levels.

The Too Good for Drugs program couldn’t come at a better time in Pennsylvania, where nearly 3,400 people died from drug-related overdoses in 2015, according to a report by the Drug Enforcement Agency.