DENVER – Alarmed by anonymous surveys asking Colorado’s middle and high school students about their sex lives and drug habits, the state Board of Education delayed action Thursday on considering changes to how the 24-year-old survey is collected.
Controlled by Republicans, the board delayed a vote to require parental consent for the surveys after their vote on the matter brought only one side – parents and health officials asking them not to make such a change.
The Healthy Kids Colorado Survey has been given to a sampling of students every other year since 1991.
But the survey was expanded dramatically in 2013, and has since come under additional scrutiny. They survey asks the students about having sex, using drugs, considering suicide, bringing guns to school and other unhealthy behaviors.
Public-health officials consider the surveys a vital tool to gauge what young people are doing, not what their parents think they are doing. “It’s our best source of our information about our youth and their health behaviors,” said Dr. Larry Wolk, Colorado’s chief medical officer.
But some board members have taken issue with the questions, and they disagree that the surveys are voluntary. Currently the state allows parents to decline the survey, but school districts are allowed to collect surveys from pupils whose parents haven’t affirmed their kids can participate.
“There are major problems with this survey, in terms of its content,” said board member Debora Scheffel, a Republican from Parker.
