Fontana schools will begin voluntary, random drug testing of middle and high school athletes — and other students in extracurricular activities — in a program aimed at improving youths’ health.
The Fontana Unified School District board voted 5-0 Wednesday, Aug. 6, to add a drug testing program for activities with an after-school component. These include sports, theater, band and Jr. ROTC.
Monthly tests would only be done on students whose parents approve. Those who fail a test would not be reported to police or otherwise disciplined, according to the policy. Instead, they’d be referred to substance-abuse treatment programs.
The idea was proposed by board member Angel Ramirez, who said the goal was to “encourage sobriety.”
The policy will give parents the opportunity to decide when and how to address a positive test result, he said. It will also expand the resources and opportunities for students suffering from drug addiction.
Fontana school board member Danielle Holley said the rule will put “power back in the hands of the parents.”
The program will be for the district’s middle and high schools and will depend on parental approval. Students who want to participate in an extracurricular activity will need their parents to sign a form giving consent to testing or opting their child out of the random tests.
It was not clear when the program would start or how students would be randomly chosen for testing.
Superintendent Miki Rene Inbody could not be reached for comment as of Friday afternoon, Aug. 8.
If a parent chooses not have their child in the testing program, the student can still participate in extracurricular activities. A district report said the program is not meant to be punitive, but to encourage sobriety among students.
It is an expansion of the school district’s current program in which any parent — regardless of whether child is participating in an activity or not — can have them randomly tested. Fontana schools have a partnership with IE Drug Testing, a Rancho Cucamonga-based lab that comes to campuses once a month and randomly tests students.
The district spends $40,000 a year on the program.
Inbody said Wednesday that adding the new component would keep costs in the $40,000 to $45,0000 range, depending on the number of families who take part.
At the meeting, district officials said 600 students participated last school year.
The new policy adds the parent permission requirement. At a previous school board meeting, the public expressed concerns over mandatory testing and the inclusion of students in the Fontana Leadership Intervention Program.
The voluntary program, a partnership between the Fontana Police Department and the school district, is a 16-week classroom-based program for “at-risk” teenagers. It covers violence prevention and drug and alcohol, among other topics.
District officials adjusted the testing policy to remove the requirement for students in this intervention program while also adding the form so parents could opt in or out of the drug testing.
Fontana school board member Mary Sandoval critiqued the testing and questioned why the district needed it when it already has a voluntary drug test program.
Sandoval said she was glad the policy was changed to exclude the intervention program and that the district takes health and safety to heart. Still, Sandoval said she doesn’t want students to feel that the district doesn’t trust them.
Students who test positive will be retested within 30 days. The results will be given to parents to allow them to address the problem. The district will provide students with information on rehabilitation and support programs.
The district will not keep the information and won’t release results to police unless there is a court order, the district report states.
Some in the public took issue with the policy.
“I am totally against any regulated drug testing,” district parent Lynda Dykes said.
If the district tried to drug test her daughter without permission, Dykes said she would look into legal options.
“It is not your job to drug test our children,” she said.
However, Karen Contreras, a grandmother and registered nurse, applauded Fontana schools for taking the initiative.
“I encourage you to go ahead and pass this,” she said.
Contreras said that the use of cannabis is detrimental in the long term and that the district was being proactive.
The Fontana school district went back to school for 2025-26 on Wednesday, Aug. 6, and is one of several other Inland Empire districts that also returned the first week of August.
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