Funds
to help to train school staff in spotting student drug
problems
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 • BY
SUSAN K. LIVIO • Star-Ledger
Staff
Dozens of schools throughout the state
will share $1.2 million to train counselors to better
identify drug and alcohol problems among students and their
families under a new initiative introduced by Human Services
Commissioner James Davy yesterday.
With one in three cases of abuse and
neglect perpetrated by a drug addict or alcoholic, the
expansion of the state's already successful "school-based
youth services program" is an important part of the state's
effort to improve child welfare services, Davy said at a
news conference in Trenton.
"This expansion will enable New Jersey to
keep more children away from the dangers of drug and alcohol
abuse. More importantly, it will enable children and their
parents to become active participants in each other's
lives," Davy said.
There are 55 high schools, 13 middle
schools and three elementary schools that provide
school-based youth programs, offering medical and mental
health screening, counseling and after-school activities.
The money will launch the program in four more high schools
-- Atlantic City, Bridgeton, JFK in Paterson and Plainfield
-- and bring an after-school program dedicated to helping
families communicate better in the 13 middle
schools.
"There are more drug dealers on the
street than there are counselors in the schools. That is the
metaphor of the tremendous challenge of this program," said
Hinda Winawer, executive director of the Center for Family,
Community & Social Justice, which provides counseling
staff to the middle schools program. "We have to fuse
substance abuse prevention into every aspect of what we do
because (drugs) destroy life, and the ripple effect is
enormous."
The money also will be used for training
seminars for counselors and social workers who work for the
71 existing school-based youth service programs, and school
faculty, so they will all be able to identify a child using
drugs or living in a home where drugs and alcohol are a
problem.
The $1.2 million comes from the federal
welfare program, temporary assistance to needy families, and
the $180 million appropriated this year for the
court-monitored child welfare reform plan.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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