A fantastic story by Donna Leinwand in today’s USA Today brings to light how random drug testing in high schools is spreading nationwide.

“The number of schools testing students for drug use is rising as legal barriers to testing have fallen, funding for it has jumped and schools have begun to expand the categories of students who can be screened.

Since the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that random testing of student athletes and others in competitive extracurricular activities did not violate the students’ privacy rights, the Bush administration has made testing middle- and high-school students a priority.

In the 2005-06 school year, 373 public secondary schools got federal money for testing, up from 79 schools two years ago, U.S. Department of Education records show. The government has not tracked the rise of locally funded programs as closely, but the White House estimates that an additional 225 schools have them…

…However, the rise in testing suggests that such programs are “taking off,” says David Evans of the Drug-Free Schools Coalition in New Jersey. Schools in that state recently decided to randomly test athletes in state tournaments for about 80 substances, including stimulants and steroids. “This happened with workplace drug testing,” Evans says. “It started slowly and then grew.”

Is your school considering implementing a confidential, non-punitive testing program? Tell us why.

Learn more about starting a random testing program in your school.

Read one principal’s experience with random testing: Principal says drug-testing students works.