In keeping with the Department's ongoing efforts to offer comprehensive approaches to improving teaching and learning, it is important to note that the prevention of youth drug use and school violence is supported through many other key parts of the No Child Left Behind Act. In order to understand the full range of activities schools are authorized to conduct to help keep students safe and drug-free, it is necessary to look beyond Title IV to the Act as a whole.

Title II: Supporting High-Quality Teachers

The No Child Left Behind Act includes many components to strengthen teacher quality and make it easier for local schools to recruit and retain excellent teachers. Title II—Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High-Quality Teachers and Principals—includes a new teacher liability protection provision to give teachers, principals, and other school professionals the tools they need to undertake reasonable actions to maintain order, discipline, and an appropriate educational environment. Under this provision, teachers who act to control, discipline, expel, or suspend a student cannot be held liable for harm provided they are acting within the scope of their teaching responsibilities and according to federal, state, and local laws.

Title V: Innovative Educational Programs

Title V of the No Child Left Behind Act, Promoting Informed Parental Choice and Innovative Programs, supports promising educational reform and school improvement programs based on scientific research. Included are a number of innovative programs related to safe and drug-free schools, detailed as follows.

• Studies of National Significance. Calls for several studies, including a study of environmentally unhealthy public school buildings, a study of how exposure to violent entertainment affects childrenÕs cognitive development and educational achievement, and a study of the prevalence of sexual abuse in schools.
  
  
• Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program. Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to local education agencies (LEAs) to establish or expand elementary and secondary school counseling programs to increase childrenÕs understanding of peer and family relationships, work and self, decisionmaking, academic and career planning, and positive peer interaction.
  
  
• Character Education Program. Supports the design and implementation of character education programs that focus on the development of such qualities as caring, citizenship, justice and fairness, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, and giving.
  
  
• Carol M. White Physical Education Program. Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants and contracts to initiate, expand, and improve physical education programs for all students. This includes fitness instruction to help students understand their physical well-being and other activities that support the development of healthy lifestyles.
  
  
• Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems. Increases student access to quality mental health care by linking local school systems with mental health systems in order to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services to students and to enhance the availability of crisis intervention services. w Domestic Violence Program. Offers grants to help schools combat the impact of experiencing or witnessing domestic violence on elementary or secondary school children.
  
  
• Healthy, High-Performance Schools. Supports LEAs in developing healthy, high-performance school buildings that support healthful, energy efficient, and environmentally sound practices.

Title VI: Flexibility and Accountability

Flexibility is one of the cornerstones of the No Child Left Behind Act. To enhance local control, the Act gives states and school districts unprecedented flexibility in the use of federal education funds in exchange for strong accountability for results.

Under Title VI, Flexibility and Accountability, authority is given for states and LEAs to transfer up to 50 percent of the funding they receive under four major state grant programs to any one of the programs or to Title I. The covered programs include the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program as well as Teacher Quality State Grants, Educational Technology, and Innovative Programs.

The new law includes a competitive State Flexibility Demonstration Program that permits up to seven states to consolidate their share of nearly all state grant programs. Participating states must enter into 5-year performance agreements with the Secretary of Education and may use their consolidated funds for any educational purpose authorized by the Act.

As part of their plans, states also must enter into up to 10 local performance agreements with LEAs, which will enjoy the same level of flexibility granted under a separate Local Flexibility Demonstration Program. This new ÒLocal FlexÓ Program will allow up to 80 LEAs, in addition to the 70 LEAs under the ÒState FlexÓ Program, to consolidate funds received under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, Teacher Quality State Grants, Educational Technology State Grants, and Innovative Programs. Like the State Flex Program, participating LEAs must enter into performance agreements with the Secretary of Education, and may use their consolidated funds for any authorized educational purpose to meet student needs.