Development of the Drug Evaluation and Classification Program | 693JJ922R000001

Opportunity Information: Apply for 693JJ922R000001

The Department of Transportation, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), offered a discretionary cooperative agreement titled Development of the Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) Program (Funding Opportunity Number 693JJ922R000001; CFDA 20.614). NHTSA's broader mission is to save lives and prevent injuries on the road through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement support. This specific opportunity focuses on strengthening the national response to drug-impaired driving by improving the DEC Program, which is also widely known as the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Program, along with its related training programs: Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) and Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE).

At its core, the award is designed to fund one recipient to help NHTSA develop, test, and continuously improve the DEC Program as a national system. The project is framed around three major areas of work: Development, Demonstration, and Support. Under Development, the recipient is expected to enhance and modernize the program using a mix of curriculum updates and technical improvements tied to science, toxicology, prosecution needs, research, and operational law enforcement policies and procedures, including officer safety practices. This includes coordinating and delivering training support connected to SFST, ARIDE, and DRE, and making sure those trainings stay relevant as drug trends and impairment patterns change. Another key expectation is sustained coordination with the network that makes the program work in practice: State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs), DRE State Coordinators, Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutors (TSRPs) and other prosecutors, forensic toxicologists, law enforcement leadership, medical experts, and researchers. The intent is to identify gaps, inconsistencies, or emerging needs and then drive improvements to address them.

The Demonstration component emphasizes practical testing and evaluation. Rather than only updating manuals or classroom materials, the recipient is expected to pilot or evaluate specific DEC-related components in real-world partnership with SHSOs and other stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and toxicologists. This part of the work is meant to show what changes actually improve the program in the field and to generate evidence about what works, what needs revision, and what can be scaled nationally.

The Support component focuses on convening expertise to guide the program forward. The recipient is expected to develop the DEC Program further by organizing a panel of subject matter experts with deep experience in SFST, ARIDE, and DRE application. This reflects how multidisciplinary the drug-impaired driving problem is: successful cases and safer roads depend not just on patrol-level detection, but also on medically sound impairment indicators, credible toxicology, consistent documentation practices, and courtroom-ready case presentation.

NHTSA justifies the need for this investment using national safety and trend data and the evolving drug landscape. The background notes that alcohol-impaired driving remains a major cause of death, citing 10,511 fatalities in 2018 involving drivers at or above a .08 BAC (29 percent of all traffic fatalities that year). It also highlights the increasing presence of drugs among drivers, pointing to testing data on fatally injured drivers and NHTSA roadside survey findings showing that weekend nighttime drivers with evidence of drugs rose to about 20 percent in 2013-2014 (up from 16.3 percent in 2007), with marijuana positives increasing substantially. The narrative connects these trends to major policy and public health shifts, including the opioid crisis and the broader legalization of cannabis, both of which can increase the likelihood that officers will encounter drug-impaired drivers and need stronger tools and training to identify and manage those situations appropriately.

The opportunity also explains why the DEC Program exists and why it is treated as a specialized capability. The program began with the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1970s when officers observed that many DUI arrestees showed impairment but had low or zero alcohol levels. That problem led to the development of a standardized multi-step protocol for identifying drug-related impairment, later formalized and expanded into what is now the national DEC Program. By January 1, 2022, all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Guam participated, with roughly 7,300 credentialed DRE officers nationwide. Even so, NHTSA notes a persistent training gap: while basic law enforcement training thoroughly addresses alcohol-impaired driving, it typically provides limited preparation for drug-impaired driving identification and case processing. The DEC/DRE framework is positioned as a way to build specialized, high-skill capacity within agencies, similar to other specialized units, to improve detection, investigation quality, and prosecution outcomes for drug-impaired driving cases.

Administratively, the award was structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning NHTSA anticipated substantial involvement in the work rather than a hands-off grant relationship. The posting listed an award ceiling of $4,828,305 and anticipated a single award. The opportunity was created February 8, 2022, with an original closing date of April 8, 2022. Eligibility is broadly described as "Others" with additional clarification expected in the full eligibility text, and the activity category is labeled Education, reflecting the program's strong training and curriculum focus even though it also includes research, evaluation, and stakeholder coordination.

Overall, this funding opportunity is about keeping the DEC/DRE ecosystem credible, current, and effective as drug use patterns and enforcement challenges evolve. The recipient would function as a national-level partner helping NHTSA update training and standards, connect the law enforcement-prosecution-toxicology pipeline, pilot improvements with states and local partners, and use expert input and evaluation to strengthen how drug-impaired driving is identified, documented, and prosecuted across the country.

• The Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Development of the Drug Evaluation and Classification Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 20.614.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 08, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 08, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $4,828,305.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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