Preventing Substance Misuse: Fresno Unified & EVERFI

Melanie’s Law requires California school districts have a solid plan to prevent and respond to fentanyl overdoses, and Fresno Unified is all in.

They’ve teamed up with EVERFI to roll out a program for middle and high schoolers that covers everything from the dangers of fentanyl and prescription drugs to vaping, alcohol use, and emotional health. With EVERFI’s award-winning resources and strong teacher support, Fresno is making sure their students are well-equipped to make smart choices and stay safe. Read on to see how they’re putting their plan into action!

Challenge: Implementing Melanie’s Law in Fresno Unified

In October 2023, the California legislature passed Melanie’s Law, mandating that all public schools develop comprehensive plans to prevent and respond to fentanyl overdoses. School districts had just eight months to implement a plan that met the requirements of the mandate.

The legislation did not allocate funds for new prevention education curriculum materials or training, so districts needed to creatively manage their budgets and collaborate with government and community organizations.

Approach: Partnering with EVERFI for Prevention Education

Anticipating the legislation, Michele Pacheco, Physical Education and Comprehensive Sexual Health Education Manager, reached out to EVERFI. She wanted to learn how their free prevention education resources aligned with Melanie’s Law and other state standards.

Collaborative Planning and Resource Alignment

In their initial meeting, Michele met with Andee Hugenberg, the district’s dedicated District Lead from EVERFI. Andee listened to the district’s needs, aligned EVERFI’s digital, evidence-based prevention resources with state standards, and explained how EVERFI provides all its resources and support services at no cost, thanks to a network of local and national partners.

Together, Michele and Andee created a game plan to ensure that every 7th-10th grade student would use EVERFI in their PE classes to learn about:

• The dangers of fentanyl and responsible prescription drug use
• How to avoid and quit vaping
• Making wise decisions about alcohol use
• Identifying and managing emotions

“From the beginning, the communication and support from the EVERFI team has been phenomenal.” – Michele Pacheco, Physical Education and Comprehensive Sexual Health Education Manager, Fresno Unified School District, CA

Training Teachers for Effective Implementation

Before the new school year began Andee and her team trained sixty teachers in two professional learning sessions. Another twenty teachers were trained within the first month of school, with a fourth training session in the winter.

By the end of each Professional Learning session, teachers knew how to:

• Integrate each resource into their lessons
• Quickly get their students logged in and learning
• Leverage real-time assessment tools to identify areas of growth
• Access supplemental lessons on the teacher dashboard
• Get immediate assistance via the teacher platform and EVERFI’s 24/7 Support Team

Ensuring Accountability and Continuous Improvement

Michele knew that accountability was key to ensuring the effective implementation of EVERFI’s resources.

To assist with accountability, Andee provided Michele with regular updates on:

• Teacher and student usage
• Student learning gains
• District and state-wide trends
• Resources to communicate with teachers and more

The impact data provided to Fresno Unified is available to every school district in North America. If you’d like to see who in your district is using EVERFI to teach critical life skills, request your unique Impact Report.

Impact: Fresno Unified’s Achievements

By the end of the school year Fresno Unified School District had 15,800 unique students learning critical life skills with EVERFI.

Students who completed EVERFI’s prevention resources experienced learning gains of 11-32%, depending on the resource.

“To say I have been pleased with the EVERFI Team is an understatement. We are appreciative of the standards-based curriculum modules, the ease of teachers being able to assign the lessons to their students, and the aspect of them being self-graded. I look forward to expanding this project and working with Andee and the EVERFI [Team] in the future.” – Michele Pacheco, Fresno Unified School District

Expanding EVERFI’s Impact in Fresno Unified

The first year was so successful that FUSD decided to integrate more of EVERFI’s resources into their curriculum for the next school year.

After reviewing the data and listening to teachers, FUSD adjusted their implementation strategy to ensure student engagement remained high while meeting California’s health standards. Instead of having students take the same resources each year, FUSD decided to stagger instruction by grade level, with each nine weeks focusing on a specific topic.

PE teachers can implement EVERFI’s health and wellness lessons in two ways:

1. As pivot lessons when inclement weather prevents physical activity
2. As homework when no inclement weather days occur during a specific quarter

As we close out the third nine weeks of 2024-’25, almost 2,000 more students are learning with EVERFI than last year.

Other Fresno district administrators have taken note of Michele’s positive reviews of EVERFI and their impact on student learning. FUSD is currently exploring how EVERFI’s eighteen financial literacy resources can help the district meet California’s upcoming personal finance mandate.

Meet Your District’s Goals with EVERFI

The same life skills resources and support provided to Fresno Unified are available to your district as well, all at no cost.

Want to check out our free resources for yourself? Our online catalog allows you to quickly sort our 40+ resources by grade level, topic, and language.

With schools in two-thirds of all districts using EVERFI, there is a good chance that some of your teachers are already using EVERFI.

Get your district’s unique Impact Report to see who they are and how EVERFI is helping them transform student learning.