Bill Text: DE SCR200 | 2023-2024 | 152nd General Assembly | Draft
Bill Title: Requesting A Report From The Delaware Department Of Education To Follow Up On The Recommendations Contained In The 154-page Delaware Drug Prevention Curriculum Task Force Report.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 9-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2024-06-27 - Passed in House by Voice Vote [SCR200 Detail]
Download: Delaware-2023-SCR200-Draft.html
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SPONSOR: |
Sen. Richardson & Rep. Dukes |
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Sens. Hocker, Lawson; Reps. Gray, Hilovsky, D. Short, Michael Smith, Yearick |
DELAWARE STATE SENATE
152nd GENERAL ASSEMBLY
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 200
REQUESTING A REPORT FROM THE DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO FOLLOW UP ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS CONTAINED IN THE 154-PAGE DELAWARE DRUG PREVENTION CURRICULUM TASK FORCE REPORT.
WHEREAS, millions of dollars have been spent on drug use prevention that were ineffective; and
WHEREAS, too many young people are not prepared to handle peer pressure associated with taking drugs or drinking alcohol; and
WHEREAS, at this point in the drug overdose epidemic, researchers have built a sizable body of evidence indicating which prevention, treatment recovery, and harm reduction strategies work and which do not work; and
WHEREAS, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. are at a record high with fentanyl identified as the leading cause of the more than 100,000 deaths annually; and
WHEREAS, in Delaware, in a four-year period of time, there were 2,015 drug overdose deaths: 436 in 2020, 515 in 2021, 537 in 2022, and 527 in 2023; and
WHEREAS, a new drug, Xylazine, is showing up more frequently in overdose deaths, and people who use opioids laced with it are at higher risk for overdoses that are harder to treat with naloxone; and
WHEREAS, another new drug, nitazene analogues, can be as much as 40 times more potent than fentanyl and people overdosing on nitazene analogues may require several doses of naloxone to be revived; and
WHEREAS, in 2019, the Delaware Youth Drug Prevention Curriculum Task Force recommended a course of action to educate our youth about the dangers of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use to reduce the chance that youth will experiment with these substances; and
WHEREAS, in addition to equipping young people to avoid substance abuse, doing so would help reduce the costs of treatment or incarceration linked to the opioid epidemic; and
WHEREAS, prevention is always going to be the most effective way to stop addiction; and
WHEREAS, more programs are adapting evidence-based approaches and accepting the reality that preaching abstinence without context is ineffective; and
WHEREAS, studies testing the effectiveness of Life Skills Training show that it can reduce the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use by as much as 80%; and
WHEREAS, not all young people have role models to help them; even those with positive role models may not be receiving essential information; and
WHEREAS, the benefit to cost ratio has been shown to be as high as 37 to 1 under one particular evidence-based drug prevention curriculum, Botvin Lifeskills Training; and
WHEREAS, in addition to the human and moral importance of guiding young people away from substance abuse, doing so would be a far more fiscally sound policy than only focusing on the costs of treatment or incarceration linked to the opioid epidemic; and
WHEREAS, the cash savings is important, but not as important as the lives saved and the number of youths whose lives are not ruined by experimental drug use; and
WHEREAS, the opioid epidemic will not go away overnight, but we have an opportunity to save lives through proper education; and
WHEREAS, directing the dollars to evidence-based programs is critical given the ongoing nature of the epidemic.
NOW, THEREFORE:
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the 152 nd General Assembly of the State of Delaware, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the General Assembly respectfully requests a report from the Delaware Department of Education to follow up on the recommendations contained in the 154-page Delaware Drug Prevention Curriculum Task Force Report.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the report should include the following for each grade level:
1) What drug prevention curriculum was used in the 2023/2024 school year.
2) What drug prevention curriculum will be used in the 2024/2025 school year.
3) An explanation of why any curriculum choices were made that are not evidenced based.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the report must be presented to the members of the General Assembly by October 1, 2024.
SYNOPSIS
Because of the serious consequences of the drug overdose epidemic, this Senate Concurrent Resolution respectfully requests a report from the Delaware Department of Education to follow up on the recommendations contained in the 154-page Delaware Drug Prevention Curriculum Task Force Report.
Author: Senator Richardson
