The name of this website is Prevention Not Punishment. What is "punishment" in the context of RSDT and what is not punishment? Schools that use RSDT do not report students who test positive for recent drug use to the police or involve these students with the criminal justice system. Neither do they expel these students from school after an initial positive random drug test result.

A positive drug test indicates recent use of illegal drugs which poses a serious threat to the drug-using student and to the school's learning environment. This is where the concept of prevention creates an active alliance between the school and the family. Students who test positive after a random drug test should be temporarily suspended from their athletic and extracurricular activities, including driving to or parking at school. These are privileges, not rights. During this period, the students who test positive for drug use should be evaluated for the possible need for treatment to help them stop using illegal drugs. Their parents need to be actively involved in the evaluation.

The students who have tested positive on an initial random drug test need to be drug tested more frequently than other students in the months after their initial positive tests to insure that they do not return to illegal drug use. This approach to a positive random drug test is what is meant by "non-punitive." These interventions are made to give drug-using students incentives and help, in order to stop illegal drug use without suspension from continued participation in the core academic activities of their school. Once drug testing indicates that these students are no longer using illegal drugs, they should be permitted to resume extracurricular or athletic activities.

A small percentage of students who test positive on random drug tests and are given the incentive and assistance to stop drug use do not stop using illegal drugs. They continue to produce positive drug tests over extended periods of time. In these unusual cases, further careful and individualized evaluation needs to be made of each student's needs. It may be that suspension from school to enter residential drug abuse treatment, or other focused interventions, are needed. The goal of random student drug testing is not to "punish" the drug-using student but to help that individual get and stay well in order to make the best use of the educational opportunities the school offers.

Some schools do not use RSDT, but instead conduct drug tests based on suspicion that a particular student has recently used drugs. Such schools may have zero tolerance policies for drugs. When a student tests positive for illegal drugs on such "for cause" drug tests the students are sometimes dismissed or suspended from school temporarily. That is punishment. We know of no schools which expel students for initial positive random drug tests. Putting drug-using students out of school can slow their academic progress and potentially expose them to more temptation to use drugs.