In this Times Oct. 4, 2018 file photo, Fairview School Resource Officer Jeff Lawson speaks to a class of sixth graders after an active shooter drill.

Recent amendments to HB481 will soon reallocate local funds away from the D.A.R.E. program to provide additional resources to local school resource officer programs to implement a new drug education curriculum.

For the last 30 years, when the original bill was enacted in 1993, additional fees have been added to local court costs in order to provide funding for D.A.R.E. programs across Cullman County and Cullman City Schools.

• All traffic tickets — $5
• All misdemeanor alcohol arrests — $10
• All misdemeanor drug arrests — $20
• All misdemeanor D.U.I. arrests — $25
• All other misdemeanor arrests — $5
• All felony alchohol arrests — $50
• All felony D.U.I. arrests — $50
• All drug trafficking arrests — $100
• All other felony arrests — $10

The disbursement of these funds has been decided by a seven member board made up of elected officials, law enforcement officers and the superintendents of both Cullman City and Cullman County schools and have alternated between the city and the county governments every five years. While the distribution process and the fees themselves will remain unchanged, amendments to the law proposed by Rep. Corey Harbison will shift the allocation of funds to reimburse law enforcement agencies providing school resource officers.

“This doesn’t add any more fees or anything like that. All this does is take the current fee structure and removes the word D.A.R.E. from the bill because the sheriff’s office said if they were to start trying to teach a new program, it could get them in trouble with the way the legislation is worded. So, this just gives the money to SROs and they can make the best decision for whatever kind of program they think is best,” Harbison said.

Harbison said the amendments followed requests he received from the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office. CCSO Director of Communications Chad Whaley said in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic a number of new resource officers have been added to the department who have been unable to become certified as D.A.R.E. instructors. He said the CCSO has been able to continue the program by moving those SROs who have been certified to schools whose officers haven’t received certification.

Whaley said the CCSO have found a new program which would allow for a single officer to receive certification who would then be able to certify additional officers, allowing for a much more streamlined and cohesive approach to continue offering students drug and alcohol prevention programs.

Cullman Police Department Public Relations Officer Adam Clark said they have continued to offer the D.A.R.E. program but the majority of the CPD’s SROs have also received certifications to teach the L.E.A.D. (Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence) program.

The amendments have been approved by both the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate and currently awaits approval from Gov. Kay Ivey.

Attempts to gain further information about the new program from Whaley have been unsuccessful.