Update: The D.C. Council passed emergency legislation Tuesday barring D.C. Public Schools from drug testing volunteers and contractors for marijuana use.

Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen threatened DCPS with emergency legislation earlier this month after Washington City Paper reported DCPS would start screening volunteers and contractors for marijuana use.

Chancellor Lewis Ferebee sent the council a letter prior to the vote stating that DCPS would not screen volunteers, but would test contractors, according to City Paper.

The bill passed by a 10-2 vote with Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie and Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto voting no and At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson abstaining.

Original: D.C. lawmakers are unanimously pushing back on a new policy from D.C. Public Schools that will require all volunteers and contractors to undergo drug testing for marijuana use.

“I don’t understand at all why DCPS would choose to put up a new barrier — to test for a substance that we’ve legalized in DC — right when we’re working to recover from this pandemic and our schools need more support than ever,” said Councilmember Charles Allen, who threatened emergency legislation if DCPS doesn’t reverse course, in an emailed statement to DCist.

In a letter to D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee Friday, lawmakers said they became aware of the issue following a Washington City Paper story that outlined community organizations’ objections to the policy change, which went into effect in May. 

“Volunteers already are required to undergo a criminal background check — even undergo a TB test,” the letter reads. “Those are reasonable, statutorily mandated, requirements, but they create barriers for many parents, Black and brown parents in particular, to volunteer in schools. Adding a requirement for drug testing would add costs and additional barriers for volunteers, just at a time when the demand for volunteers in schools will be at its highest.”

DCPS told the City Paper that the policy change is meant to come into compliance with a 2004 law that mandates drug and alcohol testing for many District employees. 

Yet lawmakers pointed out that the law applies to paid staff, not volunteers. They also questioned why DCPS doubled down on a policy years after it was first enacted at a time when schools and the organizations they work with are struggling to find volunteers ahead of a full return to in-person classes this fall.

In an email sent to partnering organizations on May 24, DCPS reiterated its obligation to drug test school workers under the Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Amendment Act of 2004. 

“Although Initiative 71 changes the laws of the District of Columbia to make it lawful for persons 21 years of age or older to possess marijuana in certain situations, it does not change DCPS’ obligations under CYSHA,” the email reads. (Marijuana use has a lingering effect and can appear on drug tests days, even weeks, after use, making it impossible to pinpoint if it was used on the clock or not.) 

People partaking in the city’s medicinal marijuana programs can submit a copy of their program card before completing their drug test form and will be required to enter a “confidential medical marijuana agreement” that requires them to follow the guidelines of their medical marijuana program, according to DCPS.

It is not the first time that there has been confusion over whether city employees are allowed to use cannabis. After staffers in the Department of Public Works were told they could lose their jobs, Mayor Muriel Bowser issued an order in 2019 that sought to clarify the policy for all city agencies. It stated that city employees — with some exceptions including MPD officers and drivers of maintenance vehicles — can use marijuana off the clock for medicinal or recreational purposes.

The order still required people — including teachers or social workers — who work with vulnerable populations to undergo pre-employment drug testing, but DCist reported in 2019 that THC would not be included under the new policy. It’s not clear if school-based staff for DCPS have been tested for marijuana use since then.

DCPS did not immediately respond to DCist’s request for comment.

“As we make cannabis use policies for the District of Columbia and its residents more equitable and fair and just and safe, we want our human resources policy to be reflective of those values,” Jay Melder, the assistant city administrator of D.C., told DCist in 2019.

This story was updated with new information.