If you are on community supervision in Tarrant County, probation drug testing works on a random call-in system: you check a phone line or website every morning, and if your identifier comes up, you report to a designated collection site that same day. A positive result, a missed test, or a refusal to provide a sample can trigger anything from stepped-up monitoring to a motion to revoke and prison time on your original sentence. The Tarrant County Community Supervision and Corrections Department (CSCD) runs the program, and the daily check-in is your responsibility, not your officer’s.
How the Random Call-In Works
Tarrant County CSCD uses a random call-in system to schedule tests. Every day, you check whether your identifier has been selected. The dedicated phone line is 817-204-0148, and you can also check online at mycallin.com.1Tarrant County, TX. Community Supervision and Corrections – Drug Testing Information If you are called, you must report to your assigned collection site that day, within the timeframe the system gives you.
Forgetting to check is not a defense. The system does not send reminders. Your officer will not call to tell you it is your day. A missed check that turns into a missed test is handled the same way as a confirmed positive. Build the daily check into a fixed morning routine, including weekends and holidays, and set an alarm if you need one.
Where to Report and What to Bring
Testing happens at Tarrant County CSCD offices in Fort Worth. The Central Office campus has two separate collection labs: the male collection lab is in the basement at 200 W. Belknap, and the female collection lab is at 300 W. Belknap in the adjacent building. The Miller Complex at 3210 Miller Avenue has a collection lab for both men and women.2Tarrant County, TX. Tarrant County Locations Your supervision officer will tell you which site you report to.
Bring a valid government-issued photo ID every time. Without ID, you will not be tested, and showing up without it does not excuse or pause the testing requirement. Staff follow chain-of-custody protocols, so you will sign paperwork tracking the specimen from collection to the lab.
What Gets Tested and How
Urinalysis is the standard test. A typical screening panel covers marijuana (THC), cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamine, opiates, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, PCP, methadone, and MDMA.3Tarrant County, TX. Tarrant County CSCD Laboratory Services Bid If you have a legitimate prescription for anything on that list, tell your officer and bring documentation from the prescribing physician before you test, not after a positive comes back.
When your conditions require total alcohol abstinence, officers rely on Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG) urine screens. EtG is a metabolite your body produces after processing alcohol, and it can be detected for up to five days depending on how much you drank and the cutoff level the lab uses. That window is much longer than a breath or blood alcohol test, so there is no safe gap between drinking and your next call-in.
Courts can also order hair follicle testing. Hair looks back roughly 90 days, so it can catch use that random urinalysis might miss if selection dates happen to land during a clean stretch. Judges sometimes add hair testing when they suspect someone is timing use around the call-in schedule.
What Testing Costs
Testing fees are separate from the monthly supervision fee, which Texas law sets at $25 to $60 per month. Tarrant County’s lab contract lists per-substance screening at $3.95 and per-substance confirmation at $9.45.3Tarrant County, TX. Tarrant County CSCD Laboratory Services Bid Because a standard panel screens multiple substances at once, your total per test depends on how many substances are on your panel and whether any results go to confirmation.
Confirmation testing happens when an initial screen is positive. The lab runs a more precise analysis, typically gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, to rule out false positives before reporting the result as confirmed. Hair follicle tests and other specialized panels cost more than standard urinalysis. If the fees are becoming unmanageable on top of your other obligations, raise it with your officer early. Courts have some flexibility on payment terms, but unpaid balances create a separate compliance problem.
CBD, Hemp, and False-Positive Risks
This is where otherwise compliant people get into trouble. Hemp-derived CBD products are legal in Texas as long as the delta-9 THC concentration stays at or below 0.3 percent.4State of Texas. Texas Health and Safety Code 443.202 Legal to buy is not the same as safe to use on probation. Full-spectrum CBD products contain trace THC, and with regular use those traces build up. Standard immunoassay screens cannot tell trace THC from a hemp gummy apart from THC from marijuana. If the screen crosses the cutoff, you have a positive, and “it was just CBD” is a hard sell.
Some common over-the-counter medications can also trigger false positives. Dextromethorphan, the active ingredient in many cough suppressants, has been documented to produce false positives for PCP. Diphenhydramine, sold as Benadryl and included in many allergy and sleep medications, can cross-react and flag as opioids. Keep a written list of every medication you take, prescription and over-the-counter, and give a copy to your officer. If you do get a positive you believe is wrong, request a confirmation test immediately and document every medication you have taken. Confirmation is more expensive, but it is the way a genuine false positive gets cleared.
Dilute Samples
Drinking large amounts of water before you report can produce a sample so diluted the lab cannot read it reliably. Labs measure creatinine to check for dilution. Federal workplace guidelines use a 20 mg/dL creatinine threshold, and many treatment-court programs follow a similar standard. A dilute sample will typically be treated as a failed test or, at minimum, prompt an immediate retest. Officers know what deliberate dilution looks like.
Consequences of a Failed, Missed, or Refused Test
The response depends on your history, the severity of the violation, and your officer’s judgment. Not every failed test leads straight to court, but every failed test goes in your file and shortens the leash going forward.
Graduated Sanctions
For a first positive or a minor slip, your officer may respond with administrative sanctions: more frequent testing, mandatory substance-abuse counseling, tighter reporting, or some combination. The point at this stage is to correct behavior without formal legal proceedings and to keep you on supervision.
Motion to Revoke or Motion to Adjudicate
Repeated violations, or a single serious one, can prompt the State to file a Motion to Revoke Probation (if you were sentenced and the sentence was suspended) or a Motion to Adjudicate Guilt (if you received deferred adjudication). Both routes lead to a warrant for your arrest and a hearing before the judge. The standard of proof at that hearing is preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt, and a confirmed positive test easily clears that bar.
A judge who finds a violation is not required to revoke. Under Article 42A.752, the court can continue supervision with added conditions: more community service hours, an extended supervision period, higher fines, or placement in a substance abuse felony punishment program for eligible felony defendants.5State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 42A.752 That last option is residential treatment through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a significant step up from outpatient counseling.
If supervision is revoked, Article 42A.755 gives the judge two choices: impose the original sentence as if supervision had never been granted, or reduce the term of confinement to any period not less than the statutory minimum.6State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 42A.755 A failed drug test can ultimately send you to prison for the length of the sentence probation was meant to spare you. On a felony, that can mean years.
Missed and Refused Tests
Departments treat a missed test or a flat refusal the same as a positive. From the department’s perspective, refusing to test answers the question. The same violation is documented, the same sanctions apply, and the same revocation exposure follows. A refusal often looks worse than a positive because it reads as deliberate evasion rather than a lapse.
Staying in Compliance
Check the call-in line or mycallin.com at the same time every morning, seven days a week. Keep your ID, your officer’s contact information, and enough cash for the testing fee together so you can report without scrambling. If work takes you out of town, put a written plan on file with your officer covering how you will test if selected while away.
Avoid all cannabis-derived products, including CBD. Avoid alcohol entirely if your conditions require abstinence, because EtG has closed the short window older probationers used to rely on. Tell your doctor and pharmacist you are subject to random screening so they can flag anything with cross-reactivity risk before you take it. If a positive comes back and you believe it is wrong, ask for confirmation immediately and hand over your medication list. Hoping the result quietly goes away is not a plan.