Drug testing school students is an idea that started spreading throughout high schools in the late 1980's. Very few schools across the United States would drug test students during this era. School districts started out just testing athletes. A couple decades later, junior high students would start to be added to those who are tested. This is when schools would expand testing to extra-curricular activities outside of sports. Students in band, choir, or those who drive to school would be required to submit to drug testing. ("Drug Testing: Background Information") About 20 percent of schools now enforce random drug testing. (Cheng "Drug Testing in Schools is Ineffective")
School districts will randomly select students to be tested. These students will only be from a pool of students active in extra-curricular activities. Students can also be drug tested if the school has reasonable suspicion of them using drugs or having drugs on them. It will usually be a urine sample from one or more of the students selected. They then test these samples for drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and even prescription pills. ("FAQ: Drug Testing in Schools")
Schools have implemented drug testing to help decrease the amount of drug use in their communities and to make school environments better. ("FAQ: Drug Testing in Schools") Over 1,000 public school districts have now implemented some sort of drug testing policy for their students. In 2002, The supreme court ruled that random drug testing for students was constitutional in the case "Board of Education v. Earls". Since that court case, teen drug use has declined 23 percent. That means that out of twenty million students in the United States, 840,000 fewer students are abusing illegal drugs in just twelve years. (Walters "Yes to Random School Drug Testing")
Drug testing can help identify problem students. Students who test