Welcome to the 2026 Illinois Youth Survey. This administering the IYS video contains a high-level overview of the IYS survey administration process. First things first. There are two documents that describe survey administration in greater detail. The School IYS Coordinator Guide contains information that the school coordinator, also called the survey contact needs to prepare for the survey. The teacher proctor instructions contain information that classroom teacher proctors need for survey day. IYS school coordinator. The IYS school coordinator is also known as the survey contact and is the person responsible for coordinating the IYS in their school. This includes distributing surveying instructions and survey logins to classroom teacher proctors, notifying parents at least two weeks before survey administration, answering questions and providing support to teachers, working with school administrators and teachers to schedule the survey, communicating with CPRD if you need to reschedule, and notifying CPRD when you are finished surveying. IYS materials. The survey login and password will be emailed to you about four weeks before your survey date. The email will contain links to the school coordinator and proctor instructions. It will also contain a link to the opt -out notification form. Select the classes to survey. Determine which subjects or classes in which you will administer the survey. You can identify a subject taken by all students in the participating grade level, such as English, or you can identify a class period and schedule all students in participating grade levels during that time. Whichever option you choose, administering the survey in a classroom environment is preferable to a large group setting, such as a gym or cafeteria. Schedule the survey. Schedule the survey at a time that you can reach as many students as possible. The higher the percentage of students who survey, the more likely it is your results will be representative of the whole grade level. Plan to survey over one to two days. Some schools take up to a week, and that is fine too. Make an effort to reach students who are hard to reach, such as those who are in dual credit, dual enrollment, or apprenticeship programs. Notify parents. Notify parents of the upcoming IYS using two different methods, at least two weeks in advance. All parents must receive the parent notification letter. You can find it on the IYS website at Opt-Out Notification under the Conducting Survey drop-down. The form can be delivered to parents on paper or electronically. Parents can opt out of the survey by returning the signed opt-out form on the second page of the parent notification. Keep track of opt-out forms so you can provide a list of non-participating students to the classroom teacher proctors who are administering the survey. Parents must also be notified via a second form of notification. This increases the likelihood that all parents will receive notification and have an opportunity to decide about the survey. Use any platform on which you normally communicate with parents, such as your school website, social networking page, student information system, or daily announcements. There is a sample flyer on the IYS website, or you can create your own announcement using school -specific information. Test the login. CPRD conducts thorough testing of the survey to ensure optimal performance and page delivery. At the school level, there are a few things to check as well. Before your survey day, talk to your IT department to enable the survey on your school's whitelist and to make sure that the survey content will not be blocked by a firewall. Follow the steps on the school coordinator guide to test the login and troubleshoot. Distribute materials to teachers. To get ready for survey day, provide classroom proctors with teacher proctor instructions and the survey login and password. Also provide the list of students who have opted out, as well as an alternative activity for non-participating students. Survey Day Guidelines Reserve the entire class period for the survey. This will allow time for you to get everyone settled and logged in, read the introduction aloud to the students, and to answer any questions that arise. Students will finish at different rates, but it's important that all students have time to finish without feeling rushed. Navigate students to the survey using the black login flag in the upper right hand corner of the IYS website. Students select online survey from the drop-down. On the survey homepage they enter your school's username and password. On the survey setup page have students check the school name under the upper left corner to be sure they have logged into the correct school. The surveys that will be available on the setup page are those that correspond to your school's registered grades, eighth grade or high school. Once students have selected the correct survey, have them click Set Up Survey and stop on the Instructions page. Start surveying. While students are on the Instructions page, read both the Proctor script and instructions aloud to students before they start the survey. They can be found on the last page of the Teacher Proctor Instructions document. Answer any questions that students have before getting started. Several of the most common questions about participation are addressed at the beginning of the FAQ in the Teacher Proctor document. Students should remain at their desks during and after the survey to ensure privacy for everyone. Survey Administration Remain at the front of the classroom unless answering student questions. If your school uses a school information system that allows student monitoring, disable it during survey administration. We encourage proctors to refrain from using their computers while administering the survey to help assure students that their answers are private. If students ask questions during the survey, refer to the FAQ in the teacher proctor instructions. You should not assist students in reading or interpreting survey items. Notify CPRD. When your school is finished surveying, let us know. You will receive an email a few days after your survey date that will show your school's survey implementation data. If you have finished surveying, you'll be able to use the link in the email to notify us that you are done so we can begin processing your report. The school coordinator guide and the teacher proctor instructions provide greater detail about survey administration. Be sure to review them both before survey day. If you have a question that's not answered or you just want to talk through IYS steps, call or email the IYS team at CPRD. Thank you for your assistance in making this survey a success.