1. Why should we participate?
Health and social issues among youth, such as substance use and bullying, are community problems that affect youth and their academic success and can only be solved when schools, prevention experts, and concerned parents work together. Participation in the IYS is recommended by IDHS and ISBE and is supported by local personnel funded by the state to help schools with questions about prevention.
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2. How is IYS data used?
IYS administration has two major goals, the first of which is to supply local data to schools and school districts throughout Illinois. These local reports provide critical information to school administrators, prevention professionals, and community members as they work to address substance use and other issues in their communities. The second goal is to provide a scientific estimate of health and social indicators for the state of Illinois. The IYS statewide reports present these findings based on a random sample of schools.
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3. How can IYS data help schools?
The IYS is a key part of a statewide effort to inform local schools and communities about youth attitudes and behaviors regarding substance use, school violence, school climate, and other health and mental health topics. The data obtained through the IYS allows schools, communities, and state administrators to develop strategic plans for promoting healthy behaviors among their youth. Often, schools and communities use this data to apply for funding to provide prevention programs.
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4. How are the survey questions chosen?
Questions are drawn from a variety of sources, including Monitoring the Future, a national survey (University of Michigan); Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and other state prevention surveys. Other survey items have been developed to meet specific data needs in Illinois.
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5. What do the IYS questions cover?
The survey asks about substance use, as well as risk and protective factors for youth substance use and other risk behaviors. Questions about participating in activities, safety, school experiences, nutrition, physical activity, and demographics are also included.
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6. How much time should be allowed to administer the IYS?
One class period of 40 to 45 minutes should be allowed to administer the IYS.
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7. Why must the IYS be administered in the spring?
The IYS is administered in the spring to match the timeframe of other national youth surveys, which allows for accurate comparisons between Illinois schools and national data.
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8. Do ISBE or IDHS see individual school data?
No, individual school data is for the school only and is not shared with the state of Illinois, IDHS, or ISBE.
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9. Why should we survey 8th graders/12th graders when they are graduating?
Collecting IYS data for 8th, 10th, and 12th graders helps establish data trends for all students in those grades. So, while this year’s 8th and 12th graders move on, their data will benefit the next group of 8th and 12th graders.
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10. Our kids don't drink or do drugs, so why do we need this?
You may not know everything that is going on, or how much of something is going on. Having data is the best way to compare what you think is happening to what is actually happening.
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11. Does participating in the IYS encourage students to experiment with new negative behaviors?
People often wonder if asking teens questions about drug and alcohol use will encourage it. Survey questions do not pose a threat beyond the risks or hazards already in a student’s life. Research has shown that there is no evidence that asking youth about substance use leads to or encourages actual use.
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12. How will you know if students are being honest?
There are checks built into the survey to identify conflicting answers and over-reporting of use. When this happens, surveys are not valid and not included in the report. Under-reporting is generally not a problem when adults conducting the survey present it seriously and address concerns students may have regarding anonymity and survey content.
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13. What is parental notification?
Parental notification provides information about the survey process and allows parents to decline participation for their student(s). Parental notification requests that parents sign and return the opt-out form only if they want their child excluded from survey participation.
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14. What if our school district requires parental consent?
If parental consent is required by your district, your school should follow the parental consent process. Contact CPRD for guidance on using the parent notification form as part of this process.
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15. How can we feel confident that IYS survey results are valid?
Research indicates that well-monitored self-report surveys produce valid responses. Results from the IYS and comparable surveys show similar patterns and levels of drug use (with variation based on locale and survey year). In addition, safeguards are built into the data cleaning process to assess the accuracy of survey responses.
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16. When will our school receive results?
Most school frequency reports are prepared within 6 weeks after survey administration. If there are less than 10 valid surveys in any participating grade, no results will be generated for that grade. To ensure the confidentiality of your school’s data, the report login and password are sent only to the principal of your school.
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17. What can we compare our data to?
- County-level reports may be available in your county if enough schools participated. If no county report is available, consider comparing your report to a similar county. County reports are typically posted on the IYS website in July following the survey year.
- Statewide random sample reports (the scientific estimate) are available for the state of Illinois overall and for four regions (Chicago, suburban Chicago counties, other urban/suburban counties, and rural counties), These reports are available on the IYS website starting in January following the survey year.
- Individual questions are comparable to those on national surveys, such as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), Monitoring the Future, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Systems (BRFSS), and Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).
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18. I never received my school report/I can't find my login.
Reports themselves are not sent to schools. Instead, a login and password unique to each school is sent to the school principal only. This system allows access to reports for all the years the school has participated. If you are new to the role of principal at your school, or you can’t locate your login information, contact us and we will be happy to resend it.
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19. Are individual school results shared with anyone?
School and district results are shared with the school/district only. CPRD will only release results to an authorized entity when there is a signed school/district release on file.
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20. How can we address parents' concerns about the survey questions?
As with any discussion of social problems, parental responses will likely vary. Parents should know that the IYS questions are age-appropriate, and students can choose not to answer any question or opt out of participating if they wish. Participating in the IYS is important because it provides guidance on questions that parents and school personnel may have, including: How much of a problem do we have? What is the nature of that problem? How can we address it?
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21. What if I don't understand the results or the IYS shows negative results for the school?
CPRD is here to help! We provide guidance about understanding your data and utilizing comparison data to assess the issues in your school accurately. In addition, we may be able to refer you to agencies in your community that provide prevention programming to help address topics of concern or recommend resources such as an evidence-based prevention curriculum.
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22. How does IYS data relate to our priority focus on academic achievement?
Research shows a clear connection between the topics addressed on the IYS and academic achievement. Students who do not engage in substance use have better attendance, higher grades and test scores, and are less likely to skip school, drop out, or engage in risky behaviors. IYS data provides information on the scope of problems in a school or area so communities can work to reduce them, thereby contributing to improved academic achievement.
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23. Can data be linked to individual students?
There are multiple safeguards in place to ensure that student anonymity is maintained, both during data collection and in reporting. The IYS collects no individual identifiers (such as name, student ID, or IP address) that would link to specific students. The IYS reports follow established rules that offer additional protection for individual schools and districts. All IYS data collection and reporting procedures have been reviewed and approved by the University of Illinois' Institutional Review Board.
24. Our students have school-issued devices. How can they be confidential?
IYS uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) to provide secure communication and identification of CPRD’s network web server. IP addresses are not collected. The only identifiers are the school and grade levels for calculation of the response rate.
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25. Can students' answers be identified by ISBE or IDHS?
ISBE and IDHS do not receive individual school or district data. School and district reports are only shared with individual schools and districts and present data only in aggregate.
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26. What are the IYS statewide reports?
The IYS statewide reports provide a scientific estimate of health and social indicators for the state of Illinois. The reports—an overall report and four smaller reports representing the state’s diverse community types, are created from a subset of participating students in a random sample of Illinois public schools. Individual schools are not identified in these reports.
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