More than $13 million of West Virginia’s education system budget was consumed to provide drug and alcohol related prevention and treatment services in 2009, according to a new report released this month by the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being and the WV Prevention Resource Center.
“The Financial Burden of Substance Abuse in West Virginia: The Education System” examines the impact of drug and alcohol use on West Virginia’s education system including elementary, secondary and institutions of higher learning. It is the third in a series of reports examining the cost of drug and alcohol use in WV. A comprehensive report, incorporating estimates from criminal justice, health care, education, child welfare, and workforce systems, will be produced at the end of the project, and all reports will be updated annually. The reports are part of a larger Family Funding Study project, which is funded with U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Block Grant money administered by the WV Division of Criminal Justice (DCJS).
“Substance abuse issues, unfortunately, are a challenge to learning environments,” said Don Chapman, Assistant Director of the WV Department of Education’s Office of Healthy Schools and member of the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being. “In addition to educating our state’s children, we must keep them safe and healthy.”
The WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being, created by Executive Order 8-04, is WV’s Governor-appointed substance abuse prevention and early intervention planning body. The Governor and the WV Partnership released a comprehensive, strategic plan for addressing substance abuse at a drug summit this past November. This latest funding study report was produced the WV Prevention Resource Center, which staffs the WV Partnership and provides support for WV’s community prevention efforts. The WVPRC is an affiliate of Marshall University and funded through various grants including a federal Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment Block Grant administered through the WV DHHR's Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities and a federal Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant and the Governor’s Drug Free WV Grants administered through the WV Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Additional information about the WV Partnership, the WVPRC, and the Funding Study project is available at www.PrevNET.org.
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