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For many Montgomery County students prom night doesn't end after the dance shuts down.

Many students continue to after-prom celebrations —not at house parties or rented hotel rooms but at school-sponsored, parent-hosted post-prom parties back at the high school.

Post-prom is about "trying to avoid good kids making bad decisions and ending up dead, to be really blunt," said Joyce Schneider, the post-prom coordinator for Winston Churchill High School.

"It provides an alternative to a house party, where you can be with your friends and make memories," Schneider said.

More than 600 students attended Churchill's post-prom party at the school on Friday, Schneider said.

Winston Churchill High School Class President Max Heller said he used to think there was not a pressing need for a post-prom celebration, but has changed his mind after "seeing how much trouble kids get into on prom night."

There is often temptation and peer pressure for students to participate in student post-prom parties that involve drugs and alcohol, Heller said. After seeing the effects of such parties, such as drunken driving collisions, Heller said that the school-sponsored after-prom party serves a necessary purpose. Having a fun and entertaining post-prom activity allows students to have a memorable night without the potentially harmful effects of drugs and alcohol, he said.

"It's giving students a safe option," Heller said.

According to Heller, students who get into trouble on prom night, especially with drugs and alcohol, may not be able to walk or be in attendance during graduation ceremonies.

"With having post-prom, there's a way to avoid this," he said.

While volunteers at many Montgomery County schools focus on after-prom parties, in Northern Virginia, post-graduation parties are a bigger deal, according to Meg Baker, treasurer and founder of Montgomery County Project Prom/Graduation, a coalition of volunteer parents who coordinate alcohol- and drug-free all-night post-prom or post-graduation celebrations.

Some county schools used to plan post-graduation celebrations prior to Project Prom's creation in 1992, Baker said, "then it got to a point where parents started to decide it really interfered with family."

As a result the focus in Montgomery County is on prom nights, which focus more on celebrating and spending time with friends, potentially in environments where alcohol or drugs are present.

The group was founded after several parents attended a training session in Northern Virginia, Baker said. Originally a small group of concerned parents, the group now extends to 30 schools throughout the county, according to its Web site.

"As schools heard by word of mouth … they decided that they wanted to have an event," Baker said. The organization also partners with the Montgomery County Police to provide two officers at every celebration.

The group meets several times throughout the year to plan events, hold vendor fairs for prospective post-prom entertainment, and discuss successful activities, according to Baker.

An all-volunteer group, Project Prom is highly committed to providing a safe alternative to other celebrations after prom, she said.