Benefits and Requirements of the California Healthy Kids Survey
Survey Benefits
"We have, for the first time, the data to determine our needs and to design our prevention programs....The data... will help us focus on the positive and measure strengths." - Contra Costa County, CA Substance Abuse Advisory Board (More testimonials...)The real value of the CHKS is harnessed when the data are used as a catalyst for positive change within schools and communities. The CHKS allows districts to identify the health and safety needs of students, establish program goals, and monitor progress in achieving the goals. By sending a positive message of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and promoting the development of comprehensive school health programs, it helps foster the school-community collaboration that is essential to tackling these critically important issues. More specifically, the CHKS can offer you:
- Customizability. The modular structure of the CHKS makes it easy for you to customize the survey to meet your needs. Not only can you choose which modules to administer, you can add questions to address topics of local interest. Would you like to know if your local program is working? Do you want to learn more about a particular issue? Select questions from our comprehensive item pool, or hire CHKS staff to help you create new questions.
- Data for Funding. Designed to serve as a single integrated local and state health data collection system that meets the needs of multiple agencies, the results of the CHKS survey can be used to meet funding requirements or secure funding for new programs. You can even use the CHKS to meet the assessment requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and the federal Principles of Effectiveness.
- Full-service Support. Step-by-step comprehensive guidebooks, Internet access to all materials, informative trainings, and the latest technologies are available to help you throughout the data collection and data use process. Clients receive on-call technical assistance from an expert staff with intimate knowledge and understanding of the new federal requirements and the tough issues facing schools.
- User-friendly Reports. Detailed Technical Reports discuss the meaning and significance of each item on the survey, helping LEAs better understand their findings and determine what to do about them. The Key Findings summary is useful for public dissemination, complete with color transparencies for use in presentations.
- Reliability & Validity. The CHKS is based on over 19 years of survey research experience, and includes many items from other reputable, large-scale surveys such as the California Student Survey and the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Research shows that in anonymous, confidential surveys (like the CHKS) there is a high degree of validity in student answers—even with sensitive questions. The CHKS also uses several measures and procedures to further ensure that data are reasonable estimates of behavior for all students.
- A Way to Link Prevention and Health Programs to School Improvement Efforts. The behaviors assessed by the CHKS are those that contribute directly to the leading causes of death, injury, and social and personal problems among youth. Use your CHKS data to gain a thorough understanding of the scope and nature of student risk behaviors and assets (resilience), and make sound decisions about allocation of resources, programming, and the effectiveness of your efforts.
- A Way to Promote Learning. Growing numbers of children are coming to school with a variety of health-related problems that make successful learning difficult, if not impossible. Research on CHKS data and the Academic Performance Index shows that there is a strong link between academic scores and a variety of health-related indicators, many of which can be measured using the CHKS.
Survey Requirements
In California, Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and County Offices of Education (COEs) that accept funds under the federal No Child Left Behind Act's Title IV Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program or the state Tobacco Use Prevention Education (TUPE) program must administer the CHKS at least once every two years. The CHKS is also recommended for schools that have afterschool programs funded under the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program or ASES, as part of their evaluation efforts. Currently, CDE districts receiving Title IV or state TUPE grants must administer the California Healthy Kids Survey and the Staff School Climate Survey under the following conditions:Student Survey
- Conduct a representative district-level survey with students in grades 5, 7, 9, and 11 in comprehensive schools, as well as with all continuation and community day school students (grades 5 and 7-12), as determined by the CHKS sampling plan. This includes charter schools that receive SDFSC or TUPE funding through the district;
- Provide private schools that choose to receive SDFSC services from the district with the opportunity to participate in the survey;
- For secondary schools, administer the Core Module A - this contains all the required items. The Tobacco Module D is no longer required of TUPE grantees.
- For grades below seven, obtain active consent from a parent or guardian for each student in the sample;
- For grade seven and above, obtain active or passive parental consent for each student in the sample;
- Meet all survey representativeness standards set forth by CDE;
- Follow all survey administration instructions and submit transmittal information (including the Answer Sheet Return Checklist) with the completed surveys; and
- Provide the results (completed answer forms) to the state (CDE) for statewide aggregation and analysis.
- Conduct the staff California School Climate Survey in all the schools in the CHKS sample; and
- Target all certificated staff working with grades five through twelve. This includes teaching staff, all personnel working in the areas of health, prevention, and safety, although there are benefits in surveying all school staff/personnel that interact with students.
- Staff participation is, however, voluntary. Staff who do not wish to participate shall not be required to do so.