The Seneca Valley School District's Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program provided to fifth-graders has had a positive impact during its 10 years in the district.

But the district's decision to end the program after this year in a money-saving move doesn't mean the end of drug abuse education. Teaching young people about the dangers of drug abuse can be done in the home by parents willing to dedicate themselves to that important mission.

Numerous district parents concerned about the drug abuse problem, despite the availability of the DARE program, have continued to remind their young people that steering clear of drug use is the best policy. And, when those parents read news reports related to the problem, including reports regarding drug arrests or deaths due to accidental overdoses, they show those reports to their children in hopes that such news will help to keep them from drug experimentation or addiction.

DARE's purpose has never been to discourage discussion at home about the drug abuse problem.

What the absence of DARE will mean for Seneca Valley parents next year and beyond is a heightened obligation and challenge for parents to show their concern about the problem and openly discuss it with their children. That's true despite the fact that the district, responding to the loss of DARE, will expand its focus on drugs and alcohol in the Grades 6 and 7 health curriculum.

"We'll provide DARE instruction in a different way through classroom instruction," said Jeffrey Fuller, assistant superintendent of elementary instruction. "We have a good, solid plan in place."

Hopefully that plan will include a reasonable level of outreach to parents on what they can do to build upon the classroom efforts.

It was a 60 percent cut in the state grant that pays the salaries of local police officers who conduct the program that led to Seneca Valley's decision to end the DARE program.

Said Rhonda Rearick, who has been a fixture in presenting the program, "It's a great program for the kids because it actually gives them reality situations that happen in their community. "They're getting it from police officers who actually see (drug-related issues) on a daily basis."

The view expressed by a Seneca Valley parent is correct: The $10,000 to $15,000 it would take to keep the program intact amounts to a "drop in the bucket in the district's $91.8 million preliminary budget." However, the district has an obligation to save money in any responsible way it can.

The alternative drug and alcohol abuse prevention education planned, as well as what should be parents' committed involvement at home, make the district's decision acceptable, even if not the most-desirable option.

Seneca Valley's school board and administration presumably will monitor the progress of the new drug and alcohol resistance approach when it gets under way next school year. And, it would be reasonable to expect instructors to discuss the program's progress at a public board meeting sometime during the year.

During the year, district parents should evaluate their own efforts aimed at keeping their children alcohol- and drug-free. Efforts of parents oftentimes have as much, or more, of a positive impact as what a classroom-based program can achieve.