BELVIDERE | Town school officials are considering expanding a random drug- testing program to the middle school.

Other New Jersey districts remain divided over whether that population can be tested from a legal standpoint.

Belvidere Superintendent Dirk Swaneveld said the potential program could involve between 80 and 90 students in grades six through eight, and be implemented on a voluntary basis through parental consent.

"We have concerns with our middle school kids," Swaneveld said during Wednesday's school board meeting. "I think we want them to know we're looking."

The school board directed Swaneveld to research the matter.

The district established a random drug-testing program at Belvidere High School last school year, testing 40 of the 488 students in the random pool.

Court decisions differ from regulations

The language in state regulations governing random drug testing has called such middle school programs into question. Adopted two years ago, those regulations appear to limit programs to students in grades nine through 12.

Swaneveld said the school attorney would review the legal implications of a middle school program and previous court decisions. The district needs to research which other school districts have similar programs and whether state statutes prohibit them, Swaneveld said.

"Certainly, we're going to do what's in the best interest of kids," Swaneveld said after the meeting, adding that he hopes to implement the middle school program by May or June.

Hackettstown School District dropped its middle school program in response to those state regulations but continues to test at the high school.

Superintendent Robert Gratz said he was uncomfortable instituting a middle school policy until the district appeared to be on solid legal ground.

"I believe this is an important enough topic to do, but it needs to be done right," Gratz said.

In Morris County's Pequannock Township School District -- the first district in New Jersey to start random drug testing in a middle school -- officials came to a different conclusion.

David Evans, a Hunterdon County attorney who advised Pequannock school officials, said that although the state regulations don't mention middle school students, a state Supreme Court decision in 2003 makes random drug testing at that level permissible.

That decision permits drug testing of all students, Evans said.

The state statute "doesn't make testing in eighth grade illegal," Evans said.

Pequannock Superintendent William Trusheim added that the voluntary nature of the district's middle school program allows students to be randomly tested. Now in its fifth year, the program typically receives a roughly 80 percent participation rate among middle school students, Trusheim said.

"It pretty quickly becomes part of the culture of the school," Trusheim said. "It gives kids another way to say no."

Agreeing to tests required for high school activities

Under the random drug- testing program at Belvidere High School, students must agree to be in the random pool to participate in athletics, other extracurricular activities and receive a parking permit.

At a cost of roughly $700 in the last school year, students were tested randomly on three occasions by a company hired by the school district, according to Joseph Flynn, assistant high school principal. The consequences of a positive test result include enrolling in a rehabilitation program.

"It's to deter students from using drugs," Flynn said. "It's not geared to be a punitive thing. It's geared to assist students to make the right choices."