The D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program is a drug and alcohol prevention program
which is offered to the students in all fifty (50) states and in forty-four (44) counties throughout the world.



D.A.R.E. was developed in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department in cooperation with the
Los Angeles Unified School District and was first introduced to Camp Hill School District’s
fifth grade students during the 1998-1999 school year.  D.A.R.E. is a collaborative effort by D.A.R.E.
certified law enforcement officers, educators, students, parents and community to provide an
educational program in the classroom to prevent or reduce drug abuse, violence and gang involvement
among children and youth, Grades K-12.  This curriculum contains all the elements that will help meet
 the requirements of the Improving America’s School Act of 1994, Title IV, P.L. 103-382.

The emphasis of the Grade 5 DARE program is to help students recognize and resist the many direct and
subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, or other drugs or engage in violence.

Our 1998-1999 D.A.R.E. program was a tremendous success with Pennsylvania First Lady, Michelle Ridge,
attending the Graduation Ceremony, where 83 students became Camp Hill’s first D.A.R.E. class.
During the 1999-2000 school year the Camp Hill Borough Police Department expanded the D.A.R.E.
Program into the Good Shepherd School.  In the 2000-2001 school year the D.A.R.E.
Program was expanded to include 7th grade at the Camp Hill Middle School.

The D.A.R.E. Curriculum consists of 11 lessons, each 50 minutes long, which help “coach” the students
to deal with high stakes peer pressure environments.    In the D.A.R.E. Program the students get to see
for themselves – via stunning brain imagery – tangible proof of how substances diminish mental activity,
emotions, coordination and movement.  The Middle School also performs Mock courtroom exercises
which bring home the social and legal consequences of drug use and violence.