The Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS) and the Colorado School Safety Resource Center (CSSRC) are working together to ensure that students in Colorado Springs, CO are educated on the dangers of substance abuse and violence. The mission of the CDPS is to keep Colorado communities safe, and the CSSRC has an extremely important goal in fiscal year 2020 to support this mission by increasing school preparedness for emergencies. To achieve this goal, the CSSRC surveyed schools across the state in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to establish a baseline of schools implementing emergency operations plans (EOP) and to facilitate a plan to increase the number of schools participating in emergency operational planning at the local level. The survey, which is a combination of the Centers for Disease Control's National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and the Colorado Youth Survey, is called the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey.
This annual report, a joint effort of the National Center for Education Statistics and the Office of Judicial Statistics, examines crimes that occur in schools and universities. The SSOCS asks public school principals to report on the frequency of violent incidents, such as physical assaults, robberies, vandalism, and robberies in their schools. In addition to this survey, the Office of Compliance and Professional Standards made a report on the responses to the school safety survey. The report covers topics such as victimization, bullying, school conditions, fighting, weapons, the presence of security personnel at school, the availability and use of drugs and alcohol by students, student perceptions of personal safety at school, and criminal incidents in higher education institutions.
To effectively educate students on substance abuse and violence prevention, it is essential to discuss healthy alternatives to substance use. It is also important to predict the potential effects of one person's substance abuse on other people. In some cases, a student may have to accept that the doctor and university dean share protected information in order to maintain a good academic level. If a student is an international student in the United States with a visa, they may be able to apply for a medical license either to receive treatment in the United States or abroad.
However, if a higher education institution or university is already aware of a mental health or substance use problem among its students, they can force students to receive treatment under the threat of expulsion. Drug testing is not uncommon in other college and university settings such as college athletes or those entering medical and dental schools. However, it is relatively rare for undergraduate universities to require students to undergo drug testing. Understandably, students may be reluctant to share information about their substance use history with a doctor who works at a campus health services center with this type of agreement.
In order to further educate students on substance abuse and violence prevention, every odd-numbered year CDE conducts a statewide survey of risk and protective factors for Colorado teens. This survey also focuses on programs, disciplinary measures, and policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime and violence in schools. In total, 42,531 students from 396 public and private schools participated in this year's Monitoring the Future survey. Finally, students receiving treatment close to their college or university may face additional difficulties during summer months when there are no classes especially if they live geographically far from campus.
It is important for universities to be aware of these difficulties so they can provide support for these students.
