CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio colleges should train teachers to educate students about opioids and addiction, the chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education has ordered.
John Carey issued a proposed action “recommending that all state-assisted institutions of higher education update the teacher preparation curriculum for all content areas and grade levels so that teachers graduating …have all the necessary information to educate students about the consequences of opiate and other substance abuse as well as the resources available to help fight the opiate epidemic.”
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Friday said schools should report what they teach students about drugs to the Ohio Department of Education.
The recommendation was one of 15 to improve drug use prevention education made in a report released by DeWine.
Carey’s action cited the increase of opiate addiction in Ohio and how the state “has taken one of the nation’s most aggressive and comprehensive approaches to fight opiate addiction and drug overdoses shutting down pill mills, cracking down on traffickers and working with the medical community to institute prescribing guidelines and preventing doctor shopping.”
Gov. John Kasich asked cabinet members to assist in the fight and since teachers interact with children, “teacher preparation programs provide an opportunity to instruct and inform Ohio’s future teachers about how to educate their students about both prevention and the consequences of opiate and other substance abuse.”
Carey has the ability under state law to recommend programs.
He recommends colleges:
1. Update their teacher preparation curriculum.
2. Ensure that the update applies to all content areas and all grade levels.
3. Provide information about resources available to help fight opiate and other substance abuse.
4. Begin offering the new curriculum this fall.
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