10 spring break safety tips to share with your teen - Children's National

Spring break should be fun, not stressful. A little planning - and a few honest conversations - can go a long way toward making sure your high school or college kid has a trip they actually remember, for the right reasons.

Here are some talking points to consider:

1. Road trip rules matter

If your teen is driving to their destination, make sure they know the basics before they leave: rotate drivers every couple of hours, no phones behind the wheel and if they're tired - pull over. It sounds simple, but fatigue is one of the leading contributors to road accidents, and most crashes happen at night. Encourage them to plan the driving schedule around that, not around arriving as fast as possible.

2. Make "the pact" before the night starts

The buddy system isn't just for little kids. Encourage your teen to have a real conversation with their group before any night out: nobody leaves with someone they just met, nobody disappears without telling the group. It helps to have a concrete plan - not just good intentions.

A few practical tools that can help:

• Share Live Location or Drop a Pin with someone back home who isn't on the trip.
• Text the rideshare license plate to the group chat every time - it takes ten seconds.
• Agree on a meeting spot in case the group gets separated.

3. Be a little mysterious on social media

Real-time location sharing on social media is one of the less obvious risks of spring break travel. Posting stories and check-ins while away broadcasts exactly where your teen is and creates a live itinerary that's visible anyone following their account - including people who specifically target spring break destinations. Encourage them to save the photos and post after they're back. Their followers can wait. The memories will be just as good.

4. Talk about consent - before they need to use it

This conversation is easier to have before the trip than during a crisis. The key message: consent cannot be given by someone who is intoxicated. That applies to everyone in the situation. Encourage your teen to look out for their friends - not just themselves - and to act if something feels off, even if they're not sure. Empower them that they do not need certainty to step in.

5. Drinking smart (for those of legal age)

If your college student is of legal drinking age and chooses to drink, there are a few habits that genuinely reduce risk:

• Eat first. High-protein foods slow the absorption of alcohol and reduce the intensity of its effects.
• Alternate with water. Staying hydrated keeps the night more manageable and prevents the worst of the next-day consequences.
• Never leave a drink unattended. Drink-spiking drugs are colorless, tasteless and fast-acting. If your teen sets their drink down, the safest move is to get a new one.

If someone in the group suddenly seems far more impaired than the amount they've drunk would explain, that's a signal to act - not wait and see.

6. Any pill not prescribed to them could be dangerous

This is one of the most important conversations you can have right now. Counterfeit pills - designed to look exactly like Xanax, Adderall, Percocet and other common medications - are widely available and frequently laced with illicit fentanyl. Fentanyl is now involved in over 75% of adolescent overdose deaths in the United States.

The message to share is simple: don't take any pill that wasn't prescribed to you personally - not from a friend, not from someone they just met, not even if it looks familiar.

Two practical harm-reduction tools worth knowing about:

• Fentanyl test strips are inexpensive, easy to use and can detect fentanyl contamination in substances before use. They're available at many pharmacies and harm reduction organizations.
• Naloxone (Narcan) is available over the counter at most pharmacies without a prescription. It reverses opioid overdose and is safe to use even if opioids aren't involved. Encourage your teen to carry it - not because you expect them to need it, but because someone around them might.

7. Know the local laws where they are going

If your teen is traveling somewhere cannabis is legal and chooses to use it, encourage them to go low and slow - especially with edibles, which can take up to two full hours to take effect. Mixing cannabis with alcohol significantly intensifies impairment, and driving under the influence of cannabis is still a DUI.

A few things worth flagging before travel:

• Cannabis is not legal in all 50 states - what's permitted at home may be a criminal offense elsewhere and vice versa.
• Vapes and e-cigarettes are now illegal in Mexico.
• Drug laws vary dramatically by country, and enforcement can be severe. Ignorance of the law is not a legal defense abroad.

8. Condom sense

Pack condoms and dental dams - and encourage your teen to do the same even if they're not planning to be sexually active. A friend might need one. Removing the barrier (pun intended) of having to find them in the moment is a small thing that can matter a lot. No judgment - just good preparation.

9. Tan safely and stay hydrated

Heat, sun and alcohol are a dehydrating combination that sneaks up fast. A few reminders worth passing along:

• Sunscreen every day - yes, even on cloudy days.
• Start with short sun sessions and rotate positions to avoid uneven burns.
• Drink more water than feels necessary, especially when drinking alcohol.
• Check current medications - many common prescriptions, including certain antibiotics and acne treatments, increase sun sensitivity significantly.

10. Make time to actually decompress

Spring break is a rare stretch of unscheduled time, and it's tempting to fill every hour. But the rest and reset that comes from genuinely slowing down - a walk without a phone, sleeping in, journaling, sitting somewhere quiet - is what helps teens return to the second half of the semester in a better place mentally.

Encourage them to build at least a few of those moments into the week, even if the rest of the trip is packed. The best spring break isn't the most chaotic one. It's the one they actually remember.

These tips are intended as a starting point for conversation, not a substitute for individualized clinical guidance. If you have specific concerns about your teen's health or safety, reach out to their healthcare provider.