SPARTA SCHOOLS APPROVE ANONYMOUS HOME DRUG-TESTING KITS

SPARTA, Wis. -- Parents of middle and high school students in Sparta
may test their kids for drugs and alcohol at home under an agreement
the district entered into with a national drug-testing company late
last month. It allows parents to order testing kits anonymously
from the company's Web site -- www.testmyteen.com -- and test their
kids without the school district's knowledge.

The first 250 Sparta parents get the first kit free under an offer
the company extends to districts that join. After that, the most
common test costs $18.99 plus shipping and handling (about $9). Each
kit is single-use. Parents in other districts may order testing
kits, but they won't get the first kit free.

"We've always been on the lookout for ways to discourage alcohol,
drug and tobacco use by students," said Sparta Superintendent John
Hendricks. "We see this as another tool we can provide for parents."

The St. Louis-based company, Test My Teen LLC, offers a wide array
of testing kits. Its basic kit, which provides nearly instant
results from a urine sample, tests for 10 different substances,
including common street drugs and a medley of commonly
abused prescription drugs. A saliva-based alcohol test and
a urine-based tobacco test can be ordered separately.

Mason Duchatschek, the company's executive director, spoke at the
Wisconsin Association of School Boards annual meeting in January in
Milwaukee, catching the attention of Sparta School Board member
Janet Horstman. She shared information about it with the board,
which approved the measure March 27.

Duchatschek said a handful of Wisconsin schools have partnered with
the company this year, joining hundreds of other districts
nationwide since the company's start in 2005. Duchatschek also owns
a company that provides drug-testing kits to corporations but said
he wanted to find a way to get the kits into the hands of parents.

"The sad reality is that many parents think, 'Yeah, there's drug use
in schools, but my kid would never do it,'" he said. "There are a
lot of good kids out there making bad decisions."

The home-testing method puts the decision to test kids or not in
parents' hands and keeps the schools out of it, he said. It also
costs school districts nothing -- parents pay if they choose to
order -- and actually benefits school districts financially.

Under the agreement, Test My Teen agrees to return "nearly 20
percent" of profits from testing products to the participating
district. The money is earmarked into a fund to promote
substance-abuse prevention programs.

Duchatschek said that generous start-up donations from
Milwaukee-based Noble Medical Inc., manufacturer of most of the
testing kits, made the program more feasible financially. While he
acknowledged the kits may be out of the financial reach of some
families, he said, he wouldn't deny the kits to needy families who
sought them, and that the cost of testing should be measured against
the alternative.

"Kids are finding ways to afford drugs," he said.