Child Testing

We offer confidential, compassionate drug testing for parents or agencies who are concerned about a child’s substance exposure. Our goal is to give families clear answers in a discreet, non-judgmental setting.

Testing a child for drug involvement is different from testing an adult, because in most cases the concern isn’t that the child is using drugs directly — it’s that the child may be living in an environment where drugs are present. For this reason, we use USDTL’s ChildGuard® test, a hair-based environmental exposure test built specifically around this distinction. Rather than looking only for drug metabolites, which the body produces after a substance has actually been ingested, ChildGuard® can also detect the unmetabolized drug itself absorbed through skin contact, secondhand smoke, or simply living in a home where drugs are being used or handled. Because most children in these situations haven’t ingested anything themselves, metabolite-only testing — the kind of screening designed for adults — will often come back negative even when a real exposure risk exists.

Hair is the preferred sample for this kind of testing, since it absorbs and retains trace amounts of a drug much like a sponge, and ChildGuard® can reveal evidence of an exposure going back approximately 90 days. This gives a far more reliable picture of a child’s home environment than a single urine test, and the standard cutoff thresholds used in workplace drug testing are simply too high to catch the trace-level exposure typically seen in these cases — a test built for detecting adult drug use isn’t calibrated for detecting a child’s passive exposure. A positive result doesn’t mean the child used drugs; it means the child has likely been in close, repeated contact with drugs or drug use in their surroundings, which is exactly the information a concerned parent, attorney, or caseworker needs.

What to Expect

• A private, judgment-free collection process
• Hair testing process designed explicity for exposure, not consumption
• Results reviewed and explained clearly, with guidance on next steps if needed
• Confidential handling of all results

If you have questions about which testing option is right for your situation, call us directly and we can walk you through it before scheduling.