Recipients of funding from the US Department of Education's Safe and Drug Free Schools must use funds to implement programs that meet the standards established in the SDFS Principles of Effectiveness. Ripple Effects programs do, and here's how:

Principle 1: Conduct A Needs Assessment: A grant recipient shall base its program on a thorough assessment of objective data about the drugs and violence problems in the schools and communities served.

Ripple Effects offers a free, web-based assessment tool, the School Safety Profiler, that makes it easier and more efficient for you to find out exactly what your community needs. Ripple Effects also provides custom services to help you understand your needs, before implementing our software programs to meet them.


Principle 2: Set Measurable Goals and Objectives: A grant recipient shall, with the assistance of a local or regional advisory council, which includes community representatives, establish a set of measurable goals and objectives, and design its activities to meet those goals and objectives.

Ripple Effects social learning software tools are comprehensive and flexible enough to be customized to meet whatever safety, health, and discipline goals you set. Ripple Effects will work with you to customize a plan to meet your targeted goals.

Principle 3: Effective Research-Based Programs: A grant recipient shall design and implement its activities based on research or evaluation that provides evidence that the strategies used prevent or reduce drug use, violence, or disruptive behavior.

Ripple Effects programs use effective, research-based strategies. Initial research shows the programs work. Ripple Effects also supports outcome evaluations of its programs.

Principle 4: Program Evaluation: A grant recipient shall evaluate its program periodically to assess its progress toward achieving its goals and objectives and use its evaluation results to refine, improve, and strengthen its program and to refine its goals and objectives as appropriate.

Ripple Effects programs include built-in assessment tools to help you measure progress. We can also help you evaluate the effectiveness of your program. Because we believe so strongly in the importance of evaluating outcomes, we give a 30% discount to organizations that are willing to partner with us in research.