May 8, 2008 

     ASAPNJ is and has been in talks with State entities and is moving toward solidification of the Substance Awareness Coordinator (Student Assistance Coordinator) position.  As it stands now, The State statute, 18A:40A requires school districts to provide instructional programs on drugs, alcohol, anabolic steroids, tobacco and controlled dangerous substances.  It requires that staff and the community be educated annually and requires that substance use/abuse be part of the ongoing curriculum.  It requires confidentiality and annual review of substance awareness programs in the district.  18A:40A requires that a school district establish a comprehensive substance abuse intervention, prevention and treatment referral programs in every elementary and secondary school.  It requires the implementation of a procedure for students under the influence, including the medical examination and the evaluation for possible need for treatment.  What 18A:40A has never required since its inception, is a Substance Awareness Coordinator, employed by the district, to provide these services. 

     In addition, 18A:40A-18 states that if a board of education wants to participate in a program that employs a Substance Awareness Coordinator, the board must submit a proposal and, if a SAC is employed, the position is to be separate and distinct from any other employment position in the district.  Under these circumstances, it is difficult to comprehend the reasons why SAC certification was increased from 4 courses to seven courses when a SAC need not be employed in the school districts!   It seems that the new courses also neglect to accommodate the expanding role of the SAC which has evolved over the past 25 years!

     This law, never updated from 1988, has put SACs in the precarious position of possible termination since the law only mandates comprehensive prevention programs, not personnel to provide these services.  In the last three months, it has been reported to ASAP-NJ, that at least 14 SACs have been eliminated for the 2008-2009 school year.  14 SAC positions equal  3.5%.  We feel that this loss is a new trend which will increase in the next five years.  In addition, in the recent survey conducted of its members, ASAP-NJ has concluded that the position of Substance Awareness Coordinator has been expanded in the last ten years to include mental health issues no where else addressed in the school system.  The adolescent conditions of depression, anxiety, family dysfunction and lack of resiliency have been placed in the hands of the SAC, the link between mental health and substance use.  There are no other personnel in the schools to manage these problems.

     The DOE states that it has begun to investigate the possibilities of modifying the law in NJ for comprehensive prevention programs, using a team approach, not necessarily with a separate and distinct position of SAC.  Creating this team approach to prevention programs in the schools in the form of a team, may or may not be advantageous to the student.  But central and foremost in any prevention program is to have a qualified and trained individual on the team who has ATOD expertise.  In many of the models currently being reviewed by ASAP-NJ, the SAC/SAP is that person and the team cannot function without the SAC/SAP. 

     Research is being reviewed as to whether or not the team approach would slow down the process of helping students.  ASAP-NJ is currently researching all three models of student assistance (Team only, SAC only, Team with one “case manager SAC"), and will make recommendations to its members and State organizations in the near future.

     We, as a community of SAC’s, need to be involved in the process of solidification.  The economic times are tough and we need to be just as tough in advocating for our positions.  We need to reach out to our networks, each and every person we know.  Get the word out about what it is we do and how important that work is for the future of our economy.  Funding needs to be reallocated in a different way to provide for the services we deliver.  Money spent on prevention is money toward our future, it is not money wasted.  The economy of the future will be stronger if SAC’s can work to solidify and provide services.  Every dollar spent on prevention now will save millions in the future. 

     Get to your local legislators, assembly people and senators, councilman and mayors, school boards and parents, municipal alliances. Tell them who we are and how prevention and the position we advocate for will help us in the near future as well as well as in the distance.