Report Title:

High School Drug Testing and Assistance Program; DOE; DOH

Description:

Requires the DOE to establish a high school drug testing and assistance program.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1471

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to substance abuse.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Establish a drug free and safe learning environment for all students through drug prevention and education activities;

(2) Identify high school students involved in substance abuse;

(3) Provide professional assessments of students who have been identified as drug users;

(4) Provide professional assistance to drug users through counseling and appropriate treatment based on each student's needs;

(5) Promote a school environment that will reduce and eliminate peer pressure to use drugs;

(6) Promote demand reduction of illicit drugs among high school students through the deterrent effects of drug testing and treatment;

(7) Improve the overall academic performance of high school students by reducing detention, suspension, and expulsion rates;

(8) Deter high school students from future involvement in the criminal justice system;

(9) Establish a base of information to:

(A) Determine the incidence and prevalence of drug use and the level of need for services; and

(B) Measure the outcomes and success of the drug testing and treatment program; and

(10) Correlate the results of student drug use surveys with the results of student drug use tests.

SECTION 2. The department of education, by rule, shall establish a high school drug testing and assistance program; provided that the drug testing and assistance program shall be deemed a pilot project and involve at least one high school from each complex area; and provided further that the program shall meet all of the following requirements:

(1) Drug testing shall be mandatory for any student who wishes to participate in any interscholastic or intramural athletic activity or any other physically strenuous co-curricular activity.

Drug testing may not be conducted without the written consent of the student's custodial parent or legal guardian, or both. If either the student's custodial parent or legal guardian subsequently withdraws the foregoing consent, then the student may not participate in any interscholastic or intramural athletic activity or any other physically strenuous co-curricular activity.

Drug testing shall be voluntary, with written consent, for any student who does not wish to participate in any interscholastic or intramural athletic activity or any other physically strenuous co-curricular activity.

(2) The drug testing and assistance program shall utilize hair analysis through radioimmunoassay as its testing method.

The drug testing and assistance program shall include tests for the use of cocaine, opiates, marijuana, amphetamines including 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and phencyclidine (PCP) and its analogs.

(3) Initial drug testing of all students with written consent shall be done within the first twenty school days of each school year or at the beginning of an interscholastic or intramural athletic activity or other physically strenuous co-curricular activity, whichever comes first.

Each high school shall drug test all of their athletes and students who participate in an interscholastic or intramural athletic activity or other physically strenuous co-curricular activity.

Each high school shall drug test all of their other students when written consent is obtained from the student's custodial parent or legal guardian, or both.

(4) Each high school shall conduct follow-up random, suspicionless drug testing of twenty-five per cent of the original student-tested pool prior to the end of the school year.

(5) Each high school shall administer a ninety-day follow-up drug test to any student who tests positive for drug use.

(6) Each high school shall assure complete confidentiality and protection of its drug testing results, unless the results are released by order of a court or some other legal authority.

(7) Each high school shall immediately meet with a student who tests positive for drug use and the student's custodial parent or legal guardian, or both, to discuss the positive test results and refer the family for a professional assessment of the student's drug use. The assessment may result in intervention or treatment recommendations and referrals to obtain services.

(8) No student shall be suspended or expelled from school solely on the basis of a positive drug test result.

(9) Drug use surveys shall be administered to students, custodial parents and legal guardians, and school staff. The department of health shall coordinate the administration of these surveys with each high school.

(10) Each high school shall maintain the data required by the department of education and provide the data as part of an overall program evaluation process.

(11) The department of education shall:

(A) Submit formative evaluations, including recommendations for improving the drug testing and assistance program, to the legislature not less than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2004 and 2005; and

(B) Submit summative evaluations, including recommendations for continuing or terminating the drug testing and assistance program, to the legislature not less than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2006 and 2007.

(12) The department of education shall adopt fee schedules that are sufficient to make the drug testing component of the drug testing and assistance program self-supporting when moneys appropriated by the legislature, allotted by the governor, and allocated by the department for the purposes of the drug testing and assistance program are taken into account; provided that students who qualify for free or reduced-price school meals pursuant to rules adopted by the department of education shall be exempt from drug testing fees.

SECTION 3. Section 329B-2.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§329B-2.5[]] Exemptions. This chapter does not apply to:

(1) Toxicology tests used in the direct clinical management of patients;

(2) Tests for alcohol under chapter 286 or chapter 291;

(3) Tests made pursuant to subpart C of the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs (53 Federal Register 11986); [and]

(4) Substance abuse testing of individuals under the supervision or custody of the judiciary, the department of public safety, the Hawaii paroling authority, and the office of youth services. However, these state governmental entities shall establish chain of custody procedures which require that all specimens be sealed and coded in the presence of the individual being tested and that the individual shall sign an approved form acknowledging that the specimen has been sealed and coded in the individual's presence. The procedure shall include a tracking form documenting the handling and storage of the specimen from collection to final disposition of the specimen. The individual also shall be afforded the option of a confirmatory test by a licensed, certified laboratory. The cost of the confirmatory test shall be paid for by the State; provided that in those instances where a positive test result is confirmed, the individual shall be charged with the cost of the confirmation test. Test results shall not require review by a medical review officer. Positive test results of substance abuse testing and the availability of a confirmatory test shall be provided to the individual in writing. A positive test result from a substance abuse test that fails to meet the requirements of this section shall not be reported or recorded[.]; and

(5) The high school drug testing and assistance program established under Act     , Session Laws of Hawaii 2003."

SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $        , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2003-2004, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005, to carry out the purposes of this Act. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education.

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003, and shall be repealed on June 30, 2007; provided that section 329B-2.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is reenacted in the form in which it read on June 30, 2003.

INTRODUCED BY:

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