Key Objectives:
- Discuss current approaches to collecting local-level school-based surveys
- Share health department successes and challenges in collecting local-level school-based surveys
- Identify CSTE members interested in improving the collection of local-level school-based surveys for possible future collaborations or discussions
Brief Summary:
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and Basic Screening Survey (BSS) are among the few state-level surveys focusing on the health of school-aged children. These surveys often provide data that are aggregated across a state, only delivering a state-level perspective. There is an increasing need for local-level surveys and analyses in order to better inform schools, local health departments, and communities about the health of the school-aged children. Local school-based surveys are also of benefit for developing community health assessments and community health improvement plans, as they can highlight health problems among youth and identify health inequities that might be addressed with public health interventions. However, school-based surveys can be time consuming, staff intensive, logistically challenging and require months of planning and follow-up. Complex sampling procedures are also not necessarily within the range of skills of program staff or data analysts who must make decisions about how and where to draw samples. Furthermore, local-level survey work, within the context of a larger statewide survey, also requires attention to resource allocation, fixed costs, and data collection timelines, as oversampling or stratifying a sample by a specific sub-state geography (health planning region, for example) increases costs, sample sizes, and (in the case of surveys requiring on-site staff support) the need for trained staff that can be dispatched to local areas for data collection or survey monitoring. Attendees of this roundtable will be invited to share their experiences regarding the coordination and costs of local-level school-based surveys, potential barriers to implementation and emerging solutions, and the necessary methodologies for ensuring quality local-level data collection. State and local health department staff who are involved in school-based survey data collection, or who plan to conduct such surveys in the future, would benefit from an organized discussion of differing approaches, constraints, methodologies, and solutions.