in 2013. The percentage of students who reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school
property was lower in 2013 than in 2011 (22 vs. 26 percent).
This indicator uses data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to discuss whether students had been offered, sold, or given an illegal drug on school property, and then uses state data from the EDFacts data collection to discuss the number of discipline incidents resulting in the removal of a student for at least an entire school day that involve students’ possession or use of tobacco or illicit drugs on school grounds. Readers should take note of the differing data sources and terminology.
In the YRBS, students in grades 9–12 were asked whether someone had offered, sold, or given them an illegal drug on school property in the 12 months preceding the survey.37 From 1993 to 1995, the percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property increased (from 24 to 32 percent), but then decreased to 22 percent in 2013 (table 9.1). There was no measurable difference between the percentages reported in 1993 and 2013. However, the percentage of students who reported that drugs were made available to them on school property was lower in 2013 (22 percent) than in 2011 (26 percent; figure 9.1 and table 9.1).
In every survey year from 1993 to 2013, a lower percentage of females than of males reported that illegal drugs were offered, sold, or given to them on school property. In 2013, some 20 percent of females and 24 percent of males reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property. The percentage of males who reported that drugs were offered, sold, or given to them on school property in 2013 was lower than the percentage reported in 2011 (29 percent). However, for females the percentage reported in 2013 was not measurably different from
In 2013, lower percentages of Black students (19 percent) and White students (20 percent) than of Hispanic students (27 percent) and students of Two or more races (26 percent) reported that illegal drugs were offered, sold, or given to them on school property (figure 9.2 and table 9.1). In addition, the percentage of Black students who reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property was lower than the percentage of Pacific Islander students (19 vs. 28 percent). Between 2011 and 2013, the percentages of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native students who reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property declined. A lower percentage of 12th-graders than of 9th-, 10th-, or 11th-graders reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property in 2013 (table 9.1). Nineteen percent of 12th-graders reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property that year, compared with 22 percent of 9th-graders and 23 percent each of 10th- and 11th-graders.
In 2013, public school students’ reports of the availability of illegal drugs on school property varied across the 36 states for which data were available (table 9.2). Among these states, the percentage of students reporting that illegal drugs were offered, sold, or given to them on school property ranged from 12 percent in Mississippi to 33 percent in New Mexico.
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Figure 9.1. Percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property during the previous 12 months, by sex: Selected years, 1993 through 2013 Percent Male Female Total 0 10 20 30 40 50 1995 1993 1997 1999 2001 2003 Year 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013
NOTE: “On school property” was not defined for survey respondents.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), 1993 through 2013.
Figure 9.2. Percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported that illegal drugs were made available to them on school property during the previous 12 months, by race/ethnicity: 2011 and 2013
0 10 20 30 40 50 Percent Race/ethnicity 2011 2013
White Black Hispanic Asian American
Indian/ Alaska Native Pacific
Islander more racesTwo or
22.7 20.4 18.6 27.4 22.6 27.7 25.5 26.4 22.8 33.2 23.3 40.5 38.9 33.3
NOTE: “On school property” was not defined for survey respondents. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), 2011 and 2013.
It is also important to examine discipline incidents that result from illicit drug-related activities at school, which reflect disruptions in the educational process and provide a gauge for the scope of drug use at school. As part of the EDFacts data collection, state education agencies report the number of discipline incidents resulting in the removal of a student for at least an entire school day that involve students’ possession or use of illicit drugs on school grounds.38 State education agencies compile these data based on incidents that were reported by their schools and school districts. During the 2013–14 school year, there were 197,000 reported illicit drug-related discipline incidents in the United States (table 9.3).39 The number of illicit drug-related incidents varies widely across states, due in large part to states’
differing populations. Therefore, the rate of illicit drug-related discipline incidents per 100,000 students can provide a more comparable indication of the frequency of these incidents across states. During the 2013–14 school year, the rate of illicit drug-related discipline incidents was 394 per 100,000 students in the United States.
The majority of states had rates between 100 and 1,000 illicit drug-related discipline incidents per 100,000 students during the 2013–14 school year. Five states had rates of illicit drug-related discipline incidents per 100,000 students that were below 100: Wyoming, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Michigan, while two states had rates above 1,000: Kentucky and New Mexico.