The D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program is a collaborative effort by certified law enforcement officers, educators, students, parents, and community to offer an educational program in the classroom to prevent or reduce drug abuse and violence among children and youth. The emphasis of the program, which is targeted at students in 5^th and 6^th grade, is to help students recognize and resist the many direct and subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants and other drugs, or to engage in violence. The Los Angeles School District in California developed the DARE Curriculum in 1983, in conjunction with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The DARE program offers preventive strategies to students to prevent drug use, and avoid violence. These strategies focus on the development of social competence, communication skills, self-esteem, empathy, decision-making, conflict resolution, independence, and positive alternatives to drug abuse and other destructive behavior. The program content is organized into seventeen 45 to 60 minute lessons to be taught by a law enforcement officer in the classroom. The teacher integrates other suggested extended activities into classroom lessons. The last DARE lesson is a culmination activity which all classes involved in DARE are invited to.