Even Some Middle Schools Now Test for Drugs MILFORD, Pa. - As a 12-year-old seventh grader, Glenn and Kathy Kiederer's older daughter wanted to play sports at Delaware Valley Middle School here. She also wanted to join the scrapbooking club. Niko J. Kallianiotis for The New York Times The parents sued to challenge the district's policy of drug testing in middle and high school. Glenn and Kathy Kiederer of Milford, Pa., whose younger daughter plays junior-varsity volleyball, question school drug testing. One day she took home a permission slip. It said that to participate in the club or any school sport, she would have to consent to drug testing. "They were asking a 12-year-old to pee in a cup," Kathy Kiederer said. I have a problem with that. They're violating her right to privacy over scrapbooking? Sports? Olympic athletes must submit urine samples to prove they are not doping. The same is true for Tour de France cyclists, N.F.L. players, college athletes and even some high school athletes. Now, children in grades as low as middle school are being told that providing a urine sample is required to play sports or participate in extracurricular activities like drama and choir. Such drug testing at the middle school level is confounding students and stirring objections from parents and proponents of civil liberties. The Kiederers, whose two daughters are now in high school, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Delaware Valley School District, with the daughters identified only by their first initials, A. and M. The parents said that mandatory drug testing was unnecessary and that it infringed on their daughters" rights. For privacy reasons, they asked that their daughters" first names not be published. A lawyer for the school district declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. It is difficult to gauge how many middle schools conduct drug tests on students. States with middle schools that conduct drug testing include Florida, Alabama, Missouri, West Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio, New Jersey and Texas. Some coaches, teachers and school administrators said drug-testing programs served as a deterrent for middle school students encountering drugs of all kinds, including steroids, marijuana and alcohol. "We wanted to do it to create a general awareness of drug prevention," said Steve Klotz, assistant superintendent at Maryville School District in Missouri. We're no different than any other community. We have kids who are making those decisions. There are no known instances of a middle school student testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs like steroids or human growth hormone. The few positive results among middle school students have been attributed to marijuana, officials said, and even those cases are rare. Maryville's drug-testing program, which includes most of its middle and high school students, begins this fall after officials spent 18 months reviewing other programs in the state, Mr. Klotz said. In the fall of 2011, Mr. Klotz said, the school board conducted a survey of parents, and 72 percent said that a drug-testing program was necessary. The cost will be $5,000 to $7,000 a year and will come from the school's general operating budget. "Drug testing is a multibillion-dollar industry," said Dr. Linn Goldberg, head of the Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University. They go to these schools and say it's great. But do the schools actually look at the data? Schools don't know what to do. Drug testing for high school athletes, which has been around for years, was deemed constitutional in a 1995 United States Supreme Court ruling. Some districts have expanded their drug-testing programs in recent years to include middle school students. In 2003, the Department of Education started a program that offered federal money for drug testing in grades 6 through 12, and the last of the grants will be closed out this fall. The program, following the outlines of the Supreme Court decision, allowed testing for students who participated in school activities, or whose parents chose to enroll them. In the 2004-5 school year, an estimated 14 percent of public school districts conducted some form of random drug testing, according to a Department of Education report. But middle school testing is not thoroughly tracked by officials. The nature of drug-testing programs at the middle school level varies by school district. In general, an outside testing company conducts the tests under contract with school authorities. Students are generally given little, if any, advance notice and are pulled away from class and asked to urinate in a cup - unsupervised, to comply with privacy laws.