Back to Departments Back to Department of Education

Office of Safe and Healthy Students

Bookmark and Share
Overview:

Public concern overschool safety has increased over recent decades due to fatal shootings and other violent acts. The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools is an office of the Department of Education created to address school safety concerns that face students. The Office administers drug and violence prevention programs for students in elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education, and related programs that promote the health and well being of students. The budget had been cut drastically in recent years. State grants dropped from $344 million in 2007 to $100 million for 2009. Cuts include Alcohol Abuse Reduction, Mentoring programs, Character Education, School Counseling, Physical and Civic Education.

more
History:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The OSDFS was developed as the successor program to the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program, first authorized by Congress in 1986 as a response to alarmingly high rates of alcohol and other drug use among children and youth. On January 8, 2002, the President signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSC), as Title IV, Part A of the NCLB, became effective on July 1, 2002. OSDFS was developed in September of 2002 to bring together into a single unit a number of programs that were previously scattered among several different federal department offices.

 

more
What it Does:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The OSDFS distributes discretionary grants to organizations and programs that are formed to promote health and prevent violence. It works on the levels of primary, secondary and higher education institutions. See programs below for examples.
The OSDFS is working toward the President's National Drug Control Strategy goals, which call for significant reductions over the next 3 years in the use of illegal drugs by adolescents. This office is also responsible for distributing information from the Center for Disease Control, in areas that may affect school children, as well as reports such as how to identify and help victims of human trafficking. It administers conferences on school safety, health and emergency preparedness. 
 
Health, Mental Health, Environmental Health, and Physical Education
These programs provide financial assistance for activities that promote the health and well being of students such as: the Carol M. White Physical Education Program, Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Discretionary Grants, and Grants for the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems.
 
Drug Violence Prevention – State Programs
 
Drug Violence Prevention – National Programs
Administers discretionary grants and other programs related to developing and maintaining safe, disciplined, and drug-free schools including: School-Based Student Drug-Testing Programs, Mentoring Grants, School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV), and Discretionary Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse.
 
Character and Civic Education: Administers programs in character and civics education, including providing financial assistance for character and citizenship education activities. Margaret Spellings defines character as positive, responsible and respectful, and finds this type of education just as important as reading, math, and science. The following programs have come out of this group: Partnerships in Character Education Program, Cooperative Civic Education and Economic Education Exchange Program, and We The People. The grants involved are supposed to go to character education programs that teach students core ethical concepts, defined as: civics; citizenship; justice; responsibility; and respect for oneself and others. The goal in this character and civic education here is to reduce discipline problems and improve academic achievement.
 
Policy and Cross Cutting Programs
Administers grant initiatives for programs that emphasize coordinated, collaborative responses to developing and maintaining safe, disciplined, and drug-free learning environments. These programs include; Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools, Safe Schools/Healthy Students Discretionary Grants, and Emergency Management for Higher Education. The following are also administered under this program: Gun-Free Schools Act, Transfer of Disciplinary Records, Pro-Children Act, and Unsafe School Choice Option.
 
Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Advisory Committee: This committee was authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act and its members are appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education. The Committee was established to provide advice to the Secretary on Federal, state, and local programs designated to create safe and drug-free schools, and on issues related to crisis planning. The Advisory Committee is made up of representatives from Federal Agencies and private citizens who have high levels of expertise and experience in the areas of drug, alcohol and violence prevention; safe schools; mental health research and crisis planning.
 
Also see:

 

more
Where Does the Money Go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The money is given out as discretionary grants to national, state or local organizations in order to carry out specific programs, such as the following:

 

more
Controversies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Propoganda
Roderick R. Paige, who was appointed the first under secretary of OSDFS, was found to have provided payments to a conservative black commentator, Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind law. Paige defended these payments as a standard "outreach effort" to minority groups who stand to benefit most from the Bush administration's showcase education program. The Education Department's inspector general criticized the contract, under which Armstrong Williams also agreed "to regularly comment on" and promote the law during his syndicated TV show. Williams has long contended that he did nothing illegal. "There's nothing to hide," he said. The $240,000 deal (taxpayer dollars), he said, paid him only to produce the ads. His company ultimately produced one radio ad and one TV ad before the contract was suspended.
 
Deceitful Name
Compliance with the federal Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools is part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Some would claim that the name "No Child Left Behind Act" is in and of itself a form of propaganda. The United States government used NCLB to personalize the originally named "Elementary and Secondary Schools Act." The NCLB Act included a mandate for public schools across the country to contribute their students' personal information to a military database. 
No Child Left Behind? (Students Against Testing)
 
Misallocation of Funding
In 2000, The Brookings Institution, an independent research group, criticized the OSDFS of being ineffective in making schools neither safer nor more drug-free. From 1986 to 2000, OSDFS provided an estimated $2 billion in funding to approximately 15,000 schools and fifty state governors to spend primarily at their own discretion. OSDFS funding has reportedly been spent on fishing trips, school concerts and performing magicians. Funding has also gone to funding various research methods in counseling that have proven ineffective.

 

more
Former Directors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric G. Andell resigned in October 2003. In September 2002, then-Secretary of Education Rod Paige appointed Andell deputy undersecretary in charge of the newly created Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Previously, Andell was a senior advisor to Secretary Paige. In May 2005, Andell pleaded guilty to charging the government for personal travel expenses on 14 occasions and for receiving sick pay while working as a visiting judge for the State of Texas. He agreed to pay $8,659.85 to reimburse the government for fraudulent expenses as part of his plea agreement with the Justice Department.
 
Cheating Educator (by Daniel Pulliam, Government Executive)

 

more

Comments

Kaleena Porter 11 months ago
i am with the pbis committee for my school and i am trying to write a grant to help with money for pbis. i was wondering where i could find a form to help me with that. thanks.

Leave a Comment

captcha

Founded: 2002
Annual Budget: $693,404,000 (2008)
Employees:
Official Website: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/oshs/index.html
Office of Safe and Healthy Students
Esquith, David
Director

David G. Esquith has been the director of the Office of Safe and Healthy Students, an agency formerly known as the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, since January 30, 2012. The office is located in the Department of Education and reports to the assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

 

Born circa 1951 and hailing from the state of New York, Esquith did doctoral work in Education at the University of Kansas, completing all requirements except a dissertation in 1986. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer and has worked as a special education teacher and administrator. He has also been a lobbyist for the Association for Retarded Citizens (now known as The Arc) and a congressional aide.

 

Esquith served in the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services for 23 years, including in the Office of Special Education Programs, the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). He served as a special advisor to the NIDRR director, as well as NIDRR’s deputy director. After the Department re-organized RSA in 2005, Esquith served as director of the State Monitoring and Program Improvement Division. He also completed an extended detail at the Office of Management and Budget as a program examiner.

 

Esquith is married to Kathryn Gingles, with whom he has two daughters, Sally and Daisy; he also has two sons and one daughter from a previous marriage.

-Matt Bewig

 

Official Biography

Segregation Comment Draws Criticism at School Board Candidate Forum: Candidate Sent Parent to Represent his Views (by Jen Bondeson, Suburban Maryland Gazette)

more
Jennings, Kevin
Previous Assistant Deputy Secretary

 

An outspoken advocate for homosexuals, as well as a writer and educator, Kevin Jennings has served since July 2009 as assistant deputy secretary to head the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education. Founded in 2002, the Office administers drug and violence prevention programs for students in elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education.
 
Born May 8, 1963, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jennings was the youngest of five children to Chester Henry, an itinerant Southern Baptist preacher, and Alice Verna (Johnson) Jennings, who had only a grade-school education. His economically-disadvantaged family moved numerous times around the South while Jennings grew up, and he would eventually attend nine schools in four states. At the age of eight his father died while the family was living in a trailer park in Lewisville, North Carolina. He spent much of his adolescence in rural communities that hated African Americans and gay people; several of his cousins and uncles were in the Ku Klux Klan. 
 
He attended Paisley Magnet School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he was beaten up by other students for his effeminate behavior. He tried to kill himself after discovering he was gay.
 
After he and his mother moved to Hawaii, Jennings graduated from Radford High School in Honolulu in 1981, and went on to become the first member of his family to graduate from college. He received his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in history from Harvard University, delivering the Harvard Oration at the 1985 commencement.
 
From 1985 to 1987, he was a high school history teacher at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, then at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, from 1987 to 1995. While at Concord Academy in 1988, he became the faculty advisor to the nation's first Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA).
 
In 1990, Jennings founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a local volunteer group in the Boston area bringing together lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and straight teachers, parents, students and community members who wanted to end anti-LGBT bias in the state’s K-12 schools.
 
In 1992, he was appointed by Governor William Weld (R-Massachusetts) to co-chair the education committee of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. He was the principal author of its report, “Making Schools Safer for Gay and Lesbian Youth: Breaking the Silence in Schools and in Families,” whose recommendations were adopted as policy by the Massachusetts State Board of Education. The commission led the fight that made Massachusetts the first state in the nation to outlaw discrimination against public school students on the basis of sexual orientation and to establish, in 1993, a statewide program to ensure educational equity on issues of sexual orientation.
 
In 1993, Jennings was named a Joseph Klingenstein Fellow at Columbia University’s Teachers College, from which he received his master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in education in 1994.
 
He subsequently left teaching to set about building the all-volunteer GLSEN organization into a national force. Under his leadership, GLSEN made safe schools into a national issue, increased by more than 600% the number of students protected from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and grew the number of GSAs from under 50 in 1995 to more than 4,300 when he stepped down in 2008. Under Jennings’ leadership, GLSEN programs like No Name-Calling Week and Day of Silence were established in American schools.
 
Jennings earned an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 1999.
 
He has authored or edited six books, including Telling Tales Out of School: Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals Revisit Their School Days (2000), Always My Child: A Parent's Guide to Understanding Your Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered or Questioning Son or Daughter (2002) and Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son(2006). He also helped write and produce the documentary Out of the Past, which won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival audience award for best documentary.
 
Jennings serves on the boards of the Harvard Alumni Association and Union Theological Seminary. He is president of the board for the Tectonic Theater Project. He is the national fundraising chair for the Appalachian Community Fund, where he established the Alice Jennings Fund to help low-income and battered women.
 
In the fall of 2009, Jennings came under attack by social conservatives over a passage in a 1994 book he edited, One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories, in which he talked about giving condom advice to a 15-year-old student who was having a relationship with an adult male. Conservatives objected to his failure to notify the student’s parents or authorities about the illegal relationship. Jennings publicly expressed regret over the way he handled the matter many years earlier, and he remained in his job despite calls for his dismissal.
 
Jennings is a founding member of the New York City Gay Hockey Association and occasionally plays left wing for the Hotshots. In August 2005, he had a heart attack on the rink, but returned to the ice two years later.
 
He lives with his partner, Jeff Davis, the managing director of Global Equities Business Strategy at Barclays, and their three dogs.
 
more
Copyright © 2012 AllGov.com. All rights reserved
Created by David Wallechinsky
Developed by Cutting Edge Intelligence