Drug, Alcohol Cases In Chatham Schools: New Data 2019

CHATHAM, NJ - A number of New Jersey school districts had dramatic 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. Some have seen more modest peaks an valleys.

New Jersey has released its annual list of substance-abuse cases reported by each school district, revealing the most recent data of reported cases. The full list was organized from the highest to lowest number of cases in 2017-18. It ranks the districts from 1 to 341.

This list contains the school districts with the highest increases – and biggest reductions – in cases from the previous year, between 2016-17 and 2017-18, which were the most recent years available.

In Chatham, the 2017-2018 data shows four reported cases, placing the district 243 out of 341. This is up one from 2016-2017.

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.

While some city school districts, such as Newark, routinely appear at the top of the list, others, such as Lakewood, 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, Freehold Regional had the highest increase in cases between 2016-17 and 2017-18, with 96, more than doubling its total. Middletown and Hillsborough also had among the highest increases, with 40 and 36, respectively.

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