2022 District of Columbia Code
Title 1 - Government Organization
Chapter 6 - Merit Personnel System
Subchapter XX-C - Mandatory Drug and Alcohol Testing for Certain Employees Who Serve Children
§ 1–620.34. Testing methodology

Universal Citation: DC Code § 1–620.34 (2022)
§ 1–620.34. Testing methodology.

(a) Testing shall be performed by an outside contractor at a laboratory certified by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to perform job-related drug and alcohol forensic testing.

(b) For random testing of District employees, the contractor shall, at a location designated by the District to collect urine specimens on-site, split each sample and perform enzyme-multiplied-immunossay technique (“EMIT”) testing on one sample and store the split of that sample. Any positive EMIT test shall be then confirmed by the contractor, using the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (“GCMS”) methodology.

(c) Any District employee found to have a confirmed positive urinalysis shall be notified of the result. The employee may then authorize that the stored sample be sent to another HHS-certified laboratory of his or her choice, at his or her expense, for a confirmation, using the GCMS testing method.

(d) Reasonable suspicion and post-accident employee testing shall follow the same procedures set forth in subsections (a) through (c) of this section. In such cases, the employee shall be escorted by a supervisor to the contractor’s test site for specimen collection or a breathalyser.

(e) A breathalyser shall be deemed positive by the District’s testing contractor if the contractor determines that 1 milliliter of the employee’s breath (consisting of substantially alveolar air) contains .38 micrograms or more of alcohol.

(f) Prior to testing, a physician must sit down with the employee and ask what medications he or she might have been taking to rule out any false positives in the drug screening results.

(Mar. 3, 1979, D.C. Law 2-139, § 2034; as added Apr. 13, 2005, D.C. Law 15-353, § 102, 52 DCR 2331.)

Emergency Legislation

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 102 of Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Emergency Amendment Act of 2002 (D.C. Act 14-310, March 26, 2002, 49 DCR 3420).

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 102 of Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Emergency Amendment Act of 2003 (D.C. Act 15-3, January 22, 2003, 50 DCR 1426).

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 102 of Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2003 (D.C. Act 15-71, April 16, 2003, 50 DCR 3593).

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 102 of Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Second Emergency Amendment Act of 2003 (D.C. Act 15-279, December 18, 2003, 51 DCR 60).

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 102 of Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2004 (D.C. Act 15-407, March 18, 2004, 51 DCR 3659).

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 102 of Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Emergency Amendment Act of 2004 (D.C. Act 15-630, November 30, 2004, 52 DCR 1143).

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 102 of Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2005 (D.C. Act 16-30, February 17, 2005, 52 DCR 2993).

Temporary Legislation

For temporary (225 day) addition of section, see § 102 of the Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Temporary Amendment Act of 2002 (D.C. Law 14-164, June 25, 2002, law notification 49 DCR 6500).

For temporary (225 day) addition of section, see § 102 of the Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Temporary Amendment Act of 2003 (D.C. Law 15-2, May 3, 2003, law notification 50 DCR 3782).

For temporary (225 day) addition of section, see § 102 of the Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Temporary Amendment Act of 2004 (D.C. Law 15-117, March 30, 2004, law notification 51 DCR 3804).

For temporary (225 day) addition of section, see § 102 of the Child and Youth, Safety and Health Omnibus Second Temporary Amendment Act of 2004 (D.C. Law 15-319, on April 8, 2005, law notification 52 DCR 4708).

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