Drug, Alcohol Cases In Jefferson Schools: New Data 2020

JEFFERSON, NJ – New Jersey has released its annual list of substance-abuse cases reported by each school district, revealing the most recent data of reported cases from 2018-19.

A number of New Jersey school districts had sizable increases in substance-abuse cases this past year as drugs and alcohol continue to be a pervasive problem in the state's cities and suburban areas. And teen vaping may be driving up the numbers, school officials said.

The data was compiled before Gov. Phil Murphy shut down school buildings because of the coronavirus crisis, and it's not known what impact the outbreak has had on the substance abuse crisis in schools.

In Jefferson, the report showed 4.53 cases per 1,000 students, ranking them 161 on the list of over 500 districts. This is a .70 increase from the previous year.

While some city school districts, such as Newark, routinely appear at the top of the list, others have seen a sharp drop in the reporting of drug and alcohol cases over the past year.

A number of suburban areas, meanwhile, showed sharp increases. Indeed, the Red Bank Regional School District had among the highest increases in cases between 2017-18 and 2018-19. Pinelands and Hazlet had among the highest numbers per 1,000 students. The state Department of Education has cautioned that these numbers are reported by each district, so each jurisdiction is responsible for reporting its results fairly and accurately. But they are required by law to report them.

New Jersey school officials told Patch that teen vaping has helped drive the numbers up over the past two years since many districts now count e-cigarette use as substance abuse.

Patch did not include school districts that had no reported cases; we also didn't include school districts that had no increase or decrease in cases on the second list.

You can view the entire list in our previous coverage.

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