Talking to your kids about family values, expectations, and being mindful and balanced before, during, and even after holiday events are both important and valuable.

Prevention education is a collective effort during Red Ribbon Week and beyond. Continued conversations with parents, educators, and counselors help kids say “YES” to a healthy lifestyle and “NO” to underage drinking.

Teachers, as you’re settling into classroom routines and building relationships with your students and families, keep in mind that the school year is a marathon, not a sprint. Sustaining that first day of school energy for the rest of the year means working smarter, not harder and we’re here to help!

It’s time to welcome students back to school! These are exciting times! A new school year is a FRESH START for everyone, but especially kids—a blank slate to define who they are and to set goals for this new chapter. Some kids may be making the transition from elementary to middle, which can be a big step. All kids will be making new friends and connecting with peers they haven’t seen all summer, allowing for new experiences, opportunities, and choices.

Whether it’s a question your child has at a baseball game, observing a friend or relative at a BBQ, wondering why certain drinks are off-limits in the cooler at the beach or even something mentioned during a road trip, here are some lessons about alcohol and responsibility to incorporate into summer.

April is Alcohol Responsibility Month, which is the perfect time to talk with kids about saying “NO” to underage drinking. As we settle into spring, these conversations have never been more important—and they are working! Underage drinking rates are at historically low levels. And together, we hope to keep them moving in the right direction.

This week is National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week, and next Friday marks the beginning of Alcohol Responsibility Month. Now is the perfect time to start and continue conversations with kids about alcohol and the negative effects of underage drinking on their developing brains using Ask, Listen, Learn resources, of course!

In response to requests from educators, these new online assessments enable you to measure your students’ knowledge before and after engaging with the Ask, Listen, Learn program by having students complete a pre-test and a post-test.

School counselors are such an important part of the Ask, Listen, Learn community, and we love seeing and learning from their passion for student well-being—both in schools and from afar. They are truly making a big difference in students’ lives. School counselors help parents, students, and educators everywhere see that we are certainly better together.

For your classroom, we are pleased to launch new Social-Emotional Learning resources created in partnership with Discovery Education—the leading provider of standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms. These two classroom activities focus on what it means to be responsible and how students can make responsible choices in their everyday lives. We know that not every conversation or lesson is about alcohol, but learning about responsibility and making healthy choices builds the foundation for good decision making in the future.