PARENTS WILL PLAY KEY ROLE IN TESTING PLAN

Many parents are now aware that the New Braunfels Independent School
District will be implementing a random drug-testing policy this school year.

But what parents may not know is how the policy works, what rights
they have to appeal a positive test result and who's going to foot the bill.

Parents and students 18 years or older will be required to sign a
consent form before they will be eligible to participate in
competitive extracurricular activities or receive a parking permit.

The forms and information about the drug policy will be distributed
to seventh and eighth-grade students Aug. 5 and high school students
July 27 and 28 as part of school registration.

Assistant Superintendent Janet Patton said students who want to
register for courses that fall under the competitive extracurricular
activity category must sign and return a consent form before they
will be allowed to enroll in the class.

Parent orientation sessions will be held to explain the policy and
review consent forms before the policy goes into effect. Patton said
the times, dates and locations of the meetings have not been determined.

The percentage of the student body and the number of testing times
each year will depend on the number of participants and the NBISD
Board of Trustees' year to year preferences. Students entered into
the pool will be chosen for testing by computer-generated random
selection based on a district provided list of all identified
participants. The district has selected independent laboratory
Pinnacle Medical Management to administer the tests and select the dates.

Students who will be entered into the drug testing pool include
students in grade seven through 12 who participate in competitive
extracurricular activities, park on campus or who voluntarily enroll
in the programs.

"The neat part about voluntary enrollment is that the district is not
notified of the results, and it is performed at no cost to the
parent," Patton said. "The medical review officer reports the results
directly to parent because this about the safety of the child and
being proactive."

Patton said students who were randomly selected for drug testing
should not worry that their names would be announced over the
intercom. A list of selected names will be given to administrators
and students will be notified of their selection by a school official
who will walk to the studentA's classroom and escort them to the
on-campus testing area.

Testing will be performed by urinalysis and monitored by an official
of the same sex. Students will provide the urine sample in a closed
stall and will not be directly observed while providing the sample.
The specimen will be split into "AA" and "BA" samples in the event
that a parent retest is requested. A preliminary positive result will
be confirmed by a second test of the same specimen.

The district can test for amphetamines, anabolic steroids,
barbiturates, cocaine, LSD, marijuana, methadone, opiates and
phencyclidine but will not test for alcohol. The eight-panel test
will not include anabolic steroids except on a random basis. However,
students will not be singled out for the steroid test on the basis of
their involvement in sports or other activities.

"It's completely random," Patton said. "If they say that they want
every 10th test to be a steroid test then they could go down the list
of student id numbers, pick one, and that student could be a debater."

Patton said that the high cost of the steroid test made it
impractical to administer to every student. The regular eight panel
test costs $28 a student, while the steroid test costs an additional
$180 per student. The district has set aside $50,000 from its annual
budget to fund the testing.

Alcohol was removed from the testing policy after the first reading
of the draft. Pinnacle President and CEO Dr. Harvey Graves explained
that the rate at which the body metabolizes alcohol makes testing for
the substance impractical.

"Alcohol metabolism in a matter of hours and unless the student drank
right before school or at school there would not be a detectable
amount," Graves said. "It takes the body one hour to metabolize each
drink, so even if the student was drinking Sunday night it would not
show up on Monday morning."

If a student tests positive for any of the nine prohibited
substances, the parent will be notified. Before officially reporting
the result of the test as positive, a Medical Review Officer will
discuss the test results with the parent to determine if there is a
medical explanation for the positive result, such as prescription
medication. If the medical explanation can be verified, for example
by contacting a pharmacy or general practitioner, then the test
result will be reported negative.

Students without a medical explanation for a positive test may still
appeal for a retest if they believe the results are incorrect. A
request for a retest must be made to the designated school official
in writing within 48 hours from the time the parent was first
notified of a positive test result. A second test from the "BA"
bottle of the specimen will be sent for retesting at the parent's expense.

Consequences for positive test results include suspension from
extracurricular competition and parking, substance abuse counseling
at the parent's expense. Students must have a negative follow-up test
before the student will regain competition and parking privileges.
The district will provide a list of certified counseling alternatives
on a sliding scale.

A student's first positive drug test will suspended him from
competition and parking for 15 days and require three hours of
counseling and a negative follow-up result.

A student's second positive test will lead to a 30-day suspension
with six hours of counseling and a negative follow-up; the third will
mandate a one-year suspension, 24 hours of counseling and a negative follow-up.

Students who test positive a fourth time will be permanently
suspended from participating in all competitive extracurricular
activities and campus parking for the duration of his or her
attendance in NBISD.

Though the draft requires students be suspended from competition for
their first three offenses, it allows the students to participate in
extracurricular practices.

In response to accusations that the district was being soft on
suspensions and wasting district money on the program, Patton said
that the policy was not designed to be punitive.

"The biggest obstacle of this policy has been to communicate to
people that because someone's test shows to be positive, it's treated
under this policy not the Student Code of Conduct. They are not
considered under the influence because this is a non-punitive intervention.

"The student code of conduct addresses drug use on campus or at
school functions. This policy is more about deterring students from
the temptation of using drugs in a society where the pressures are
mounting and can be overwhelming. We want to educate the students and
parents of harmful effects of drug use and intervene prior to any
damaging or irreversible effects," Patton said.