Preventing Substance Use in Middle School

Project ALERT is a classroom program that teaches seventh and eighth graders how to resist drugs and alcohol. It’s free, easy to use, and scientifically proven.

Project ALERT | Adolescent Learning Experiences in Resistance Training

We are pleased to release the 2025-26 version of Project ALERT!

Each year we make updates to Project ALERT based on feedback from educators delivering and students receiving it. A brief overview of the updates for this school year follow:

Continuing the Conversation

Educators requested information to send home to families about what students learn in each Project ALERT lesson as well as how families can talk about substance use prevention or resistance skills at home. We are pleased to release “Continuing the Conversation” a companion for each Project ALERT lesson. The companions can be printed and sent home with students or sent via email, and include question prompts so families can engage in lesson content at home.

Clarifying Internal and External Pressures Throughout the Lessons

We received positive feedback on our revisions made to internal and external pressure for the 2024-25 school year. But there were areas we could refine the discussion to facilitate pacing. We moved some of the teacher-facilitated discussion to the “Think about” section of the lesson plan. Educators can reference details or extend the class discussion as time allows.

Modifying Some Activities to Support Pacing

Educators shared that some long-standing activities were difficult to implement in their classroom. Students were not familiar with an underlying concept for an activity (e.g., Pictionary) or teacher explanations could take too long. To facilitate pacing, we simplified some activities and their teacher explanations, so students spend more time in active learning.

Providing Student Handouts in Spanish

We now offer all teacher and student materials in both English and Spanish! Note Spanish versions of Continuing the Conversation will be posted by Friday, September 12, 2025.

Adolescents are bombarded with messages that glamorize drugs and alcohol and disguise the real-world consequences that can change a teen's life forever. That's why every student needs the tools to make healthy decisions about substance use.

Project ALERT is a free, easy to use substance use prevention program that can be delivered during any course during school hours or in programs outside of school time, and can be delivered by any adult. The curriculum is series of lessons that uses the power of practice and repetition to give students the self-efficacy, skills, and resources to resist peer pressure and misleading messaging to use substances.

The goals of Project ALERT are explicit:

To prevent adolescents from beginning to use substances
To prevent those who have already experimented from becoming regular users
To prevent or curb risk factors for substance use

Project ALERT is an evidence-based curriculum, meaning statistics and long-term survey research define Project ALERT’s success. Unlike most other programs, Project ALERT has been and continues to be thoroughly tested in multi-year, multi-community studies. This scientific validation means that administrators and teachers know what the program can deliver, who it can impact, and the effort involved in making its results last. Project ALERT is proven to motivate students against drug use, provide skills and strategies to resist drugs, and establish new non-use attitudes and beliefs.

Project ALERT is designed to be delivered over two years. In the first year, typically 7th grade, students receive the initial 11 Lessons, or Core Curriculum. In the second year students receive three Booster Lessons that are critical for maintaining early prevention gains. Each lesson takes about a class period but can be adapted to fit into shorter instructional blocks like Advisory and Homeroom. Both the Core Curriculum and Booster Lessons offer a variety of activities and instructional materials (e.g., Project ALERT videos and posters).