General Information

Founded in 1983 by Los Angeles Police Department, today more than 15,000 D.A.R.E. officers and deputies are in over 10,000 communities nationwide educating America’s youth and serving as the first line of defense in America’s schools.  The D.A.R.E. program is today taught in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and 50+ other countries.  All curricula are science/evidence-based, age appropriate, and written by a national panel of curriculum and prevention experts.  D.A.R.E. curricula meet the core educational standards of health, language arts, and math.  D.A.R.E. also meets the needs of communities and schools as it relates to “bullying.”

Who is a D.A.R.E. Instructor

A D.A.R.E. Instructor must be a uniformed law enforcement officer, meeting the minimum training standards for peace officer status in their state of residence, and who has completed the equivalent of two years as a peace officer with full police powers.  Additionally, the D.A.R.E. Instructor candidate’s employing police agency shall have a memorandum of understanding with concerned school district(s) allowing implementation of D.A.R.E. after completion of the candidate’s training.

The basic 80 hour D.A.R.E. Officer Training (DOT) allows a police officer or sheriff deputy to teach both the elementary curriculum and the middle school curriculum,  as well as the high school curriculum.  D.A.R.E. has new elementary and middle school curriculums, keepin’ it REAL (kiR). The D.A.R.E. kiR middle school curriculum which is an evidence-based program commended by the Surgeon General, Scientific American magazine, the President’s 2017 Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, the National Institute of Justice, the California Healthy Kids Resource Center, and the United Nations.

The Process

If you are a parent or caregiver in a community where D.A.R.E. is already taught, but is not in your school at the present time please contact your school administrator/principal and request the local law enforcement agency begin to teach D.A.R.E. at your school.

If D.A.R.E. is not currently in your community, begin by talking to other like-minded parents and caregivers and approach the local school administrator/principal to discuss your concerns and your interest in the D.A.R.E. program.