Parents and committee spar after youth-risk survey given to opted-out middle school students

Parents packed the April 1 Burlington School Committee meeting to protest a youth risk behavior survey that several parents say was given to middle school students even though their parents had submitted opt-out forms.

The complaint reached the level of a public confrontation: multiple parents said students were told the survey was mandatory, that teachers did not honor opt-outs, and that some students were exposed to explicit question text and definitions that parents called inappropriate for sixth- through eighth-graders.

The parents’ concerns prompted a detailed response from Superintendent Dr. Anthony Conte. Conte said some opt-outs were lost in a large volume of ParentSquare communications and that school staff identified at least four concrete cases where an opt-out was not honored. He said the district had worked with a regional consortium and a public-health contractor (JSI) to convert a paper survey into a computer-based questionnaire and that JSI altered some definitions after the district’s wellness committee reviewed the survey. "The definitions were altered after that and we missed that, the alterations," Conte said, adding the district apologizes to families whose opt-outs were not honored.

Parents described the survey language as deeply upsetting. Hilda Darion, who said she has a sixth-grade son at Marshall Simonds Middle School, said her son "came home last week clearly shaken up" and only realized what he had been asked after seeing posted screenshots. "My son said, Mom, we took a test today at school, but the questions were really weird. I didn't know how to answer them. I didn't wanna take the test, but my teachers made me," Darion said during public comment.

Other parents said the survey included explicit definitions (some added in 2025) that went beyond the CDC instrument the district had referred to in communications. Superintendent Conte told the committee that eight of about 10 Middlesex League communities used the same questions, and that JSI added or changed items and definitions at the last stage of preparing the computer-based instrument. "We just assumed that the questions would be the same, and the information would be the same as 2023. And it was changed. But that was changed again by JSI, not by our staff," Conte told the committee.

Committee members and parents pressed several follow-up items: better notice to parents before a survey is administered, an opt-in rather than an opt-out system for sensitive instruments, a policy that requires the survey text to be attached to any opt-out/permission message, and clearer classroom directions that students who decline may stop and not be pressured. Committee member Jeremy Brooks said he wants immediate action and proposed putting policy language on the next meeting agenda; the chair agreed to bring survey policy proposals back for committee consideration.

District officials confirmed Leahy Clinic provided partial funding for the multi-district effort and that Burlington also shared costs; Conte said the district will not continue working with JSI "if the committee so chooses," and that the wellness committee and administration must tighten review procedures going forward.

What the committee directed and what it did not do Discussion at the meeting produced several clear next steps rather than a formal policy vote: the administration agreed to inventory surveys used by the district, provide copies of the 2023 and 2025 surveys for committee review, present proposed policy language addressing parental consent and classroom procedures, and return to the committee with recommendations on whether to continue participation in the Middlesex League survey process or to replace the contractor. No formal disciplinary actions or personnel votes were taken at the meeting.

Why this matters District leaders and many parents said the goal of collecting youth-risk data is to inform wellness programming; parents who spoke said the particular instrument and the way it was administered crossed a line for middle-school students and breached parent trust. Several speakers insisted immediate, concrete policy changes be presented to the committee at the next meeting.

The committee scheduled follow-up agenda items; the district said it will post answers and the survey instruments as soon as they are available.