Studies have estimated that nearly 20 percent of high school students are experiencing life problems which can be directly attributed to their use of mood-altering chemicals. Many of these life problems, including truancy, declining academic performance, behavior problems, and chemical use itself, directly affect the school system. Any school district which attempts to develop and implement a chemical dependency program must deal with the affective barriers inherent in the topic of chemical dependency. Enabling attitudes (e.g., denial, minimization, justification) of students, parents, and school personnel inhibit efforts to deal effectively with chemical use problems. Expression of these attitudes is often an attempt to alleviate fear, desperation, guilt, embarrassment, helplessness, insecurity, and over-protectiveness. In order to initiate a chemical dependency program, these underlying feelings must be acknowledged and worked through with tough love and detachment. Social workers are uniquely qualified to design and implement school-based chemical dependency programs because of their skills in community organization, leading multi-disciplinary conferences, student and program advocacy, effective use of community resources, and individual and group work. Since social work education may not provide adequate knowledge about chemical dependency, school social workers interested in developing a chemical dependency program must find other training programs to increase their knowledge and understanding of this problem. (NRB)