Safe and Drug Free Schools

The Idaho legislature has allocated funds for school districts and charter schools to implement substance abuse prevention measures and school safety improvements. The funding is based on a formula – base amount of $2,000 for every district and charter school plus a prorated amount based on the prior year’s Average Daily Attendance (roughly $12.00 per student).

Your total allocation for the current year will be listed at the bottom of your SDFS Application Form.

The funding for SDFS is generated through taxes on tobacco products and lottery winnings. The revenue is dependent upon the sales and winnings, which can be difficult to approximate. Given this variability, applications are reviewed, approved, and funded as revenue is available. If revenue is not available to fund approved applications, payments will be made as soon as the revenue is sufficient.

SDFS funding is distributed twice a year in the form of a direct payment to the district or charter school. SDFS funds are not distributed via drawdown reimbursements. Funding is typically distributed in January and May, though due to the variability of funding sources, these times may change from year to year.

Yes. All expenses should follow the intent of House Bill 629 (2020) Section 5 stating that “Such funds shall be used to develop and implement school safety improvements and/or to facilitate and provide substance abuse prevention programs in the public-school system.” If unsure about allowability of a potential use of funds, confirm with Idaho Department of Education.

Each year, the Idaho Department of Education asks districts/schools to submit data regarding the state policy on Persistently Dangerous Public Elementary School or Secondary School Designation annually via the SDFS Application.

PLEASE NOTE: You will need to be logged in to ISEE in order to access this application. Districts/schools must submit their data by December 31.

The application is simple, straightforward, and inclusive of all mandatory data elements used to inform the Idaho Department of Education’s work keeping Idaho schools safe and drug free. Questions include: SDFS Contact Information, information on what SDFS funds were spent on during the previous year, and information on Bullying incidents during the previous year.

Please use the PREVIOUS year’s data to complete the SDFS Application. This includes both the section requesting information on where SDFS funds were spent, and the section used to collect bullying data.

Annually.

Reporting of bullying incidents required by Idaho Code 33-1631. However, in effort to streamline the process, the reporting is embedded within the Safe & Drug Free Schools Funding Application.

As the statute (Idaho Code 33-1631) requiring this reporting worked its way through the legislature during the 2015 legislative session; House and Senate education members were adamant that the bullying data collected was not to be identifiable (an incident tied to a specific student). Through consultation with the Idaho Department of Education IT team it became clear that the Idaho System for Education Excellence (ISEE), the state’s main venue for collecting education data from school districts and public charter schools, is designed to collect data specific to individuals (students, staff, etc.). As such, there is no format for ISEE to collect aggregate data like incidents of bullying and harassment. Therefore, the Idaho Department of Education designed a simple format to collect incidents of bullying in a one-time, end of year format and imbed this within the application for Safe and Drug Free Schools Funding Application. State Board rule clarifies that the data shall be collected at the end of the school year. Hence the recent correspondence regarding this data collection request with special instructions.