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.

5 Conversations to Have at Home During Red Ribbon Week

Check out the resources below that you can use with your students to encourage them to say YES to a healthy lifestyle and NO to underage drinking.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is not just a series of lessons to focus on at school, the lessons, goals, and fundamentals can also belong in the conversations and values, and behaviors that continue at home.

Recent data shows that the conversations that parents are having with the kids about alcohol have increased. Compared to levels from 2003, more kids and teenagers report talking to their parents about underage drinking in the past year. This means more parents around the country are engaging in these conversations and keeping these conversations going. This is especially important since parents have been found to be the leading influence on kids’ decisions about drinking (and NOT drinking)– even more than their friends and peers.