When Are Teens Screened for Substance Abuse in Your Legal System? -- Survey Results

Recently, we asked you to take a survey, in order to address some basic questions:

• At what point in the legal process do you screen youth for alcohol and drug use/abuse? 
• What screening tool are you using? How well do you think it works?
• If you perform pre-adjudication screenings, how do you make sure the results do not interfere with the rights of the child in court?

Thanks to all who participated, so we can present our extremely unscientific results.

We had 23 brave souls in 19 communities take the survey, representing 16 states from Alaska to Florida. About 2/3 were Reclaiming Futures communities. Respondents filling out the survey were primarily probation officers and Reclaiming Futures Project Directors, though we also had replies from drug court coordinators, and treatment providers, among others. Here's what they told us:

• At what point in the legal process do you screen youth for alcohol and drug use/abuse? (22 responses)

Pre-adjudication: 13
Post-adjudication: 6
Both: 3  

• What screening tool are you using? How well do you think it works?

Screening Tools Used (incl. duplicates)
CRAFFT - 4
GAIN Q - 5
GAIN SS - 7
MAYSI-2 - 5
PACT (in FL and TX) - 2
State-Req. Risk/Needs Assessment - 10
YLS/CMI-SV (in AK) - 1
Unknown - 1
 
(We asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with their screening tool(s) on a Likert scale. There were too few responses to generalize the results, given the number of tools being used.)

• If you perform pre-adjudication screenings, how do you make sure the results do not interfere with the rights of the child in court?

Nine respondents gave detailed answers to this question.
Three sites that screen youth prior to adjudication reported that the screening information is not used until disposition of the case; two said the information is not shared or revealed in court; two more had "specific protocols" governing how the information is shared, with whom, and when; and one reported that youth are read their Miranda rights before screening, and if these rights are waived, the probation officer does not perform the screening.  
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to take the survey; I hope the results are instructive.
Incidentally, I hear that progress is being made on the very common issue of connecting kids to services before adjudication without compromising their constitutional rights -- stay tuned for more information!