Critics this week attacked the Hart district’s 17-year-old, zero-tolerance policy for students caught using drugs or alcohol, saying it doesn’t do enough to urge parents and students to confront the problem together.

Santa Clarita City Councilman Frank Ferry and ACTION founder Cary Quashen have proposed allowing students caught abusing drugs the option to sign a contract with the school and their parents.

Under the agreement, students would have to stay sober, submit to drug testing, enroll in a treatment program and keep their grades up in order to stay at the school.

“You have a situation where you could work with the parent, the school and a child as a partner,” Ferry said. “I think this is one more time we can partner to do what’s best for our kids.”

If the contract is broken, then a student would be transferred.

Under the current policy, established in 1993, students found with drugs are suspended, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department might be contacted. They could also be transferred to another school, as a way to give them a clean start and to separate them from those who had a bad influence on them.

While the option does work for some students, critics have said that moving a student simply spreads the drug problem to another school.

The district also offers a voluntary random drug-testing program that requires parent and student consent. The program is funded by grants.

Ferry’s suggestion came after local mother Krissy McAfee addressed the City Council at an April meeting, saying the community needed to do more to prevent drug use in Santa Clarita Valley’s youth. Her son, Trae Daniel Allen, died in late March of a heroin overdose.

The council on Tuesday approved asking the Hart district to make changes to its zero-tolerance policy as it relates to student drug and alcohol use. The council, which has no authority over the district, also wants to appoint an ad hoc committee to work on the issue.

The Hart district board maintains a policy committee where two board members are charged with updating policy and procedures, board President Paul Strickland said.

“We certainly look at suggestions and also we will revisit the policy as time goes on,” Strickland said.

But making any changes to the policy or adding new programs would require additional funding, board member Steve Sturgeon said.

That comes at a difficult time as the Hart district is trying to figure out how to trim $15 million from its budget.

While board memeber Joe Messina said the policy may need to be tightened up, the emphasis should be on reaching out to parents.

“We have got to make a concerted, focused effort at getting parents educated as well as having options to help kids,” Messina said.

Messina proposed increasing the frequency of events like Teen Scene Unplugged.

That event is currently an annual event organized by the city that brings parents and kids together to talk about teen issues.

“The parents have to be informed,” Messina said. “Or this just won’t work.”