Enforcing tobacco-free policies in a school (K-12) setting – 4/9/12

Q: Georgia has 82 city/county school systems that have adopted a 100% Model Tobacco-Free School Policy. These policies are in place in over 1,500 schools (K-12) and protect over 1,500,000 young people from the dangers of tobacco use. Some of these policies have been adopted this year and some were adopted up to five years ago. Ensuring that the policies are being enforced and obtaining compliance data have presented challenges, especially among schools with older policies. The program would like to learn:

• What person(s)/organization(s) are responsible for enforcement of tobacco-free policies in the K-12 school setting in your state?
• What strategies are in place to ensure that tobacco-free school policies are being implemented and enforced (for example, must schools undertake a certification process?)?
• What, if any, evaluation/monitoring efforts are in place at the state level?
• What is the level of priority within your state health department for the issues of monitoring and enforcement?

A:

1. Alaska: In Alaska, each district is responsible for the enforcement of its own policy. At the state level, we have developed some tools/resources to try to assist with the communication/implementation of K-12 tobacco free school policies. We provide metal signs and/or window clings to districts upon request and have a guide “Putting Policy into Action” which provides sample announcement language and other helpful tips.
    
   School districts that participate in our tobacco prevention grant program self-report on policy enforcement as a part of their grant reporting but we don’t currently have any monitoring efforts at the state level. Perhaps the School Health Profiles survey could be a mechanism for statewide self-reporting.
    
2. Alaska Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) Youth Leaders Coalition: Here in Alaska, we are separated into boroughs, and each borough’s school district has different rules pertaining to tobacco in schools. In the Kenai Borough School District, we have a non-suspension program that when a teen gets in trouble, they take a course to know the harmful effects of tobacco. Unfortunately not all schools have this program. So, in our state we created a resolution statement (see attached) in support of a comprehensive tobacco-free school district policy.
    
   Forming a policy that betters your state and can be sent to the state legislature can help your schools and community. Start small with programs like Teens Against Tobacco Use or promote posters and videos to younger youth about anti-tobacco.
    
3. Oklahoma: Assessing the Communities of Excellence community grants is part of the work of the evaluation team contracted by the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust. Several years ago, the evaluation team created an evaluation plan that grantees could adopt to evaluate 24/7 tobacco-free campus policy communication and compliance. These documents were reviewed by subject matter experts at the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Four evaluation plans are attached – one contains all elements and the other three are broken into the 3 potential outcome indicators:
    
   • Placement of tobacco-free schools signage
   • Compliance at athletic events
   • School leaders’ perceptions of effectiveness & policy violation data
      
   The data collection aids we provided as part of the evaluation plan “toolkit” included a Policy Communication & Content Checklist, Tobacco Free Property Signage Observation Worksheet, and School Personnel Interview Guide. Most grantees used staff to implement the plans and many called on Students Working Against Tobacco youth to aid in assessing signage and communication/ promotion of the policy at athletic events. (click here for a paper that we used to inform the creation of the Athletic Event Observation form.) In some communities, coalition members also participated in carrying out evaluation activities.
    
   Finally, a sample fact sheet was designed to aid grantees in communicating the findings of their evaluation to stakeholders such as school board members. Anecdotally, we have heard that these fact sheets have been effective in gaining stakeholder attention and gaining support for implementing additional strategies to increase awareness and sustain the effects of the policy. We, along with one of the community grantees, will be presenting a poster on this topic at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health.
    
   Additionally, as part of the toolkit, we also provided grantees with copies of relevant CDC evaluation briefs, which are available online here. For example, CDC Brief 16: Data Collection Methods for Evaluation: Observation, Brief 17: Data Collection Methods for Evaluation: Document Review, etc.
    
   Our grantees have found these evaluations to be quite helpful in sustaining relationships with schools and ensuring ongoing communication and discovery of strategies that will aid in compliance. This is the case even for grantees working with school districts that passed policies many years ago – for example, 2005.
    
4. New Hampshire: The Division of Liquor Enforcement is responsible for enforcement. It is complaint driven but since 1991, New Hampshire’s K-12 public schools are supposed to be tobacco free, not just smoke-free. Also, school resource officers (SROs) can enforce if they need to, but not all schools have SROs.
    
5. Palau: In Palau, the Ministry of Education is responsible for the enforcement of school tobacco free policies. The Ministry of Health provides interventions, prevention strategies, support and advice. With the implementation of the first Palau Tobacco Act, Republic of Palau Public Law (RPPL 8 – 27), a policy which places restrictions on tobacco use in public places (among other restrictions on tobacco sales and marketing), it will be up to each grade level to develop strategies that will enable students to understand and know the content of this law. The Ministry of Health can come in to assist and advise, but the main focus is the school itself. The Ministry of Education conducts YRBS every other year with close collaboration with us at the Ministry of Health, and every 4 years the Ministry of Health conducts the Palau Youth Tobacco Survey. We do a lot of outreach to schools (4 to 7 times a year). After the passing and signing of the Tobacco Act, evaluation and monitoring have accelerated to a higher degree. They will continue to be high priorities until the prevalence of tobacco use is reduced among our youth.
    
6. Washington: Washington State has had a law that bans possession of tobacco on school property for well over a decade, but continues to struggle with enforcement of that law. Our state laws can be viewed online here.
    
   While we are unaware of any instances of smoking in the buildings, there have been ongoing concerns with students smoking on the outskirts of the school property or on the sidewalk just off school property. There have also been instances of school ball parks having tobacco used after hours.
    
   It is up to the school and local police to enforce the law and sometimes, this enforcement is not prioritized. There are people who believe it is better to allow students a place to smoke on the periphery of the school rather than losing their attendance altogether. Many of these schools have resource officers that could intervene, but choose not to.
    
   We have lost most of our program capacity, but had previously tasked our regional Educational Service Districts with providing an assessment of tobacco policies and enforcement. There is also the School Health Profiles system of surveys that most states complete. That is probably the best resource for policy assessment. Sometimes, this is done from the school side rather than the health department side, so you may need to make a friend in your sister agency office.
    
7. West Virginia: In West Virginia, we have had a Statewide tobacco-free schools policy since 1998 by establishment of a Legislative Rule:
    
   From WV CSR §§ 126-66-1 et seq. (1998)… “No person shall distribute or use any tobacco product at all times in any building, property or vehicle leased, owned or operated by a county board of education, a Regional Education Service Agency (RESA), the State Department of Education or the State Board of Education. This policy shall apply to any private building, or other property including automobiles or other vehicles used for school activities when students or staff are present. Individuals supervising students off school grounds are prohibited from distributing or using any tobacco product while in the presence of students or any time while engaged in any activities directly involving students.”
    
   While there is collaboration between our state health department and the state education department for the issues of monitoring and enforcement of the tobacco-free schools policy, it is ultimately the responsibility of the individual school administrators, the principal and vice principal, etc., to enforce the school policies, and after that the county superintendent. The State Board of Education allows a great deal of local control by the county boards of education, making the policy hard to enforce at the school level. It’s the same as who is monitoring and enforcing kids not bringing weapons to school - this can’t really be done at a state level. Since schools will now have the teacher evaluation process, this type of thing might be a part of the principal’s evaluation.

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Editor’s note: A related question in the Help Your Peers archive, Implementing a statewide tobacco-free schools law – 6/2/10, relates to state laws, but some of the comments still apply for individual school systems’ policies. Based on the responses in the archive, it seems that in many cases, the school districts are responsible for implementation, enforcement, and evaluation, while the state department of health provides technical assistance, resources, and guidance. California’s response in the Help Your Peers archive mentioned reporting requirements for a tobacco-free certification process which school administrators must undertake in order to receive state funding.

CDC’s Guidelines For School Health Programs To Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction suggest that the burden of effort for evaluation/monitoring should be on the school administration.

Click here for additional examples of the resources that states provide to schools for supporting implementation and enforcement.

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