D.A.R.E. is at the forefront of substance use prevention education programs. It is designed to give young people the facts about drugs and alcohol and to "Inoculate" them against negative peer pressure by teaching them self-management and resistance skills. This unique program, developed in 1983 uses uniformed police officers to teach in the classroom. Employing a formal, semester long curriculum, D.A.R.E. focuses special attention on students in elementary school exit grades (5-6) who are not yet likely to have been led by their peers to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and are, therefore, more receptive to prevention education.

In cooperation with the Barrington School District 220, one officer teaches Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), a national drug and violence prevention education in every fifth grade classroom in Barrington Hills.

A recent curriculum change in D.A.R.E. has resulted in a new 10 week program incorporating the same objectives as the earlier 17 week program, but utilizing different learning methods from years past.

D.A.R.E. is designed to equip young students with the skills to resist substance abuse and develop life skills. It is the largest drug and violence prevention program in the world. In order to prevent drug abuse and teach life skills to students, the D.A.R.E. curriculum focuses on the following objectives:

• Learning to recognize and resist peer pressure to experiment with tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.
• Enhancing self-esteem.
• Learning assertiveness techniques.
• Learning anger management and conflict resolution skills.
• Developing risk assessment and decision making skills.
• Building interpersonal and communications skills.
• Learning about positive alternatives to substance abuse.