The State Board of Education (SBE) approves, with conditions, requests for waivers allowing the use of Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) funds to support the cost of implementing promising or innovative prevention programs. The term of each waiver is for two years beginning on the day the SBE approved the waiver.
Waivers are necessary because No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001,Title IV, Part A, Section 4115 (a)(1)(C) requires that a SDFSC-funded program provide evidence based on scientific research that the program will reduce violence and illegal drug use. New, promising, or innovative programs often cannot provide the level of evidence needed to scientifically demonstrate effectiveness without additional rigorous evaluation or scientific study. The waiver allows the district to use the program while it was being scientifically evaluated.
The districts whose waivers are approved are required to submit a midterm report one year after the waiver is approved and a final report when the two-year waiver term has ended. These reports are to be submitted to the Safe and Healthy Kids Program Office (SHKPO).
- Safe and Drug-Free School Innovative Programs Waiver Report Form (DOC; 46KB; 2pp.)
The midterm and final reports must describe the progress made by the program evaluator or publisher in completing the evaluation and submitting the results of the evaluation to one or more of the following agencies:
- California Healthy Kids Resource Center (Outside Source)
- Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (Outside Source)
- National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) (Outside Source)
If any one of the program-reviewing agencies listed above designates a new program to be a Model, Blueprint, or Research-Validated program, then the California Department of Education (CDE) will add that program to its list of science-based programs. No waiver is needed to use SDFSC funds to support science-based programs.
Waiver application forms, science-based and promising program lists, and the SBE policy 03-01, Federal Waiver - Safe and Drug-Free School Innovative Programs Under NCLB, are available from CDE's Waiver Office.
