Safe and Drug Free Schools / ASPIRE

ASPIRE A Smoking Prevention

Interactive Experience

Alternative to Suspension (ATS) Health Curriculum

SADFS is excited to tell you about a free opportunity for our schools and our youth regarding a resource to use as an Alternative to Tobacco Suspension (ATS). According to WS/FCS districts Tobacco Free Schools Policy 1331, student violators will be provided access to an ATS program. The ASPIRE program affords you the opportunity to enforce the policy while keeping your students in school. Per policy, OSS days will only given only after the student has three or more policy violations or refused to participate in an ATS program. This program may also be used to enhance tobacco education for existing health and physical education programs.

Our district has partnered with the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas to implement their ASPIRE program along with the Forsyth County Health Department. ASPIRE is evidence-based and is available at no cost for our district. WS/FCS was the first pilot site for ASPIRE in North Carolina.

ASPIRE uses animations, videos, and interactive activities to communicate the facts about smoking and tobacco use, as well as, offers skills to adopt a tobacco-free lifestyle. With broadband internet access, ASPIRE can be used at home, in the classroom, the computer lab, the library or at any public computer. The ASPIRE web site will be available 24/7.

ASPIRE as the ATS program will include a pre-test, quizzes after each of the five ASPIRE modules, a post-test, and the capability for each student who finishes all five modules to print an ASPIRE "certificate" of completion. For your convenience, the certificate will be electronically sent to you at school as the referring administrator for policy violations.

Below is the Administrator link to ASPIRE. This will allow you to add students who want to enroll and track a student's progress towards completion in the program:

https://www2.mdanderson.org/sapp/aspirepilot/admin/index.aspx

Below is the Student link. Administrators give this to the student:

https://www.mdanderson.org/aspirepilot

Instructions for using ASPIRE

Contacts:

Kathy Jordan Contact for ATS (Alternative to Suspension)

Program Specialist

Safe and Drug Free Schools

Phone: 336-703-6730 x. 1

ksjordan@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Yalonda Miller Contact for Youth Advocacy

Youth Tobacco Prevention Coordinator