Italy High School

Drug Testing Policy

The District shall implement a mandatory drug testing program for all students in grades 9 – 12 participating in competitive, school-sponsored activities. This program shall include testing at the beginning of the school year and random testing throughout the school year. The first year of the drug testing program (2004-2005), all high school students participating in competitive, school-sponsored activities will be required to take a mandatory drug test at the beginning of the school year or the beginning of the sport or activity they plan on participating in. Any year after that, all 9^th grade students and any new students that have transferred to Italy are required to take a mandatory drug test before participating in any school-sponsored activity. All other returning students will be placed in the random testing pool to be randomly tested throughout the year. Thus if you are a returning Italy ISD student who passed the drug test from the previous year then you will not be required to take the mandatory tests at the beginning of the year.

The results of any drug test shall be used only to determine eligibility for participation in competitive extracurricular activities. The District shall take no action against a student except as provided in this policy.

If a student or parent refuses to give consent for the drug testing program, the student shall not be allowed to participate in the school-sponsored activities for which the testing is required.

All results of drug testing shall be confidential and shall be disclosed only to the student, the student’s parents, and designated District officials. The Board shall contract with a licensed medical facility or third party administrator recommended by the athletic director to conduct testing of students’ urine samples for the presence of drugs. The athletic director shall oversee the program conducted by the selected testing laboratory.

The District shall reserve the right to have the laboratory test for:

Any substances that are illegal to buy, possess, use, sell, or distribute under state or federal law, including but not limited to marijuana, cocaine, phencyclindine (PCP), propoxyphene, opiates, hallucinogens, and metabolites of any of these substances;

Prescription drugs;

Performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids; and

Alcohol.

Each required student intending to participate in a competitive extracurricular activity shall be tested at the school’s expense at the beginning of the school year or when participation begins, as applicable. The District shall not accept as the initial testing for this program any results submitted by the parent or student from drug tests not performed by the District and its contracted testing laboratory as part of this program.

Random tests shall be conducted throughout the school year. A determined percentage of the students participating in the program shall be randomly selected for each random test date. Using confidential student numbers, the testing laboratory shall generate a random list of students for each date. All students in the program shall be eligible for testing at each test date.

Students shall not be notified in advance of any random drug test. When selected for testing, each student shall be escorted by a District employee to the school’s testing site and shall remain under employee supervision until a sample has been provided.

A student who refuses to be tested on a designated test date, who tampers with any sample, or who assists others in tampering with any sample shall be subject to the same consequences as a student having a confirmed positive test result.

All positive test results shall be confirmed by a second, more definitive test before being reported to the District as positive.

The District shall take the following steps upon receiving a confirmed positive test result from the testing laboratory:

The athletic director shall notify the principal, the coach or activity supervisor, and the Superintendent, as applicable.

The principal shall notify and schedule a meeting with the student, the student’s parent, and the coach or sponsor of the activity in which the student participates.

At the meeting, the principal shall provide the student and parent a copy of the test results and an opportunity to offer an explanation. The student or parent may request a retest of the original specimen, at his or her own expense. Such a request must be made in writing within 48 hours of the meeting with the principal and must include payment for the retest.

Following a first confirmed positive test result, the consequences shall be as follows:

The student shall be removed from participation in competitive events for 30 calendar days beginning on the date the principal receives notice of the results. Calendar days will stop counting on the last day of school and begin back on the first day of class the next year or the first day of practice of the school-sponsored activity whichever comes first. The student shall be permitted to participate in practices for the activity during this period.

A student intending to return to full participation in a competitive school-sponsored activity shall be retested, at the student or parent’s expense, at the end of the 30-day removal.

The student and parents shall be encouraged to seek intervention, assessment and counseling.

Following a second confirmed positive test result, the consequences shall be as follows:

The student shall be removed from participation in competitive events for 90 calendar days, beginning on the date the principal receives notice of the results. Calendar days will stop counting on the last day of school and begin back on the first day of class the next year or the first day of practice of the school-sponsored activity whichever comes first. He or she shall be permitted to participate in practices for the activity during this period.

A student intending to return to full participation in a competitive school-sponsored activity shall be retested, at the student or parent’s expense, at the end of the 90-day removal.

The student and parents shall be encouraged to seek intervention, assessment, and counseling.

Following a third confirmed positive test result, the student shall no longer be permitted to participate in competitive extracurricular activities for the remainder of the student’s enrollment in the District.

A student or parent may appeal any decision made under the drug testing program in accordance with FNG(LOCAL). The student shall be ineligible for participation in any competitive extracurricular activity until the appeal process has been completed.