Drug-Testing Program Continues At Edmond Public Schools

<p>Edmond Public Schools renewed its contract with a third party vendor, Compliance Resource Group, to continue its drug-testing program, according to Superintendent Bret Towne.&nbsp;</p>

Thursday, July 5th 2018, 7:24 pm

By: News 9


Edmond Public Schools renewed its contract with a third party vendor, Compliance Resource Group, to continue its drug-testing program, according to Superintendent Bret Towne.

And because of improving budgets, Superintendent Towne said the program was restored to previous levels.

“The last two years we cut it in half to around 250 students at three high schools and now we’re taking it back to 700,” he explained. “So some of it’s coincidence that we’re just doing this and then with the passage of 788, it may look like we were adding it. But we had already planned to do it.”

Any high school student involved in the district’s competitive activities is eligible to be drug tested. And Compliance Resource Group uses a software that performs a random selection, according to Jim Tedrow, the Director of the Laboratory.

“That generates the list of students that will be tested that month,” he told News 9.

“Last year we only had .4 percent test positive,” Superintendent Towne said. “The year before .6 and the year before that 1.1, so we believe it does have a deterrent for those students who are in those activities.”

And while the passage of 788 did not impact the continuation of the program, Superintendent Towne said there are some concerns with so many unknowns.

“There’s just going to be more available,” he explained. “It’s going to be able to be grown in the home I understand. And we’ve just seen some of that. If there are drugs in the home, whether they’re legal or illegal, students sometimes will get them and bring them to school.”

Other districts with drug-testing programs already in place include Putnam City Schools and Mid-Del School District. The board at Norman Public Schools is set to consider implementing a policy at a July 16 meeting.

Oklahoma City Public Schools does not currently drug test students.

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