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Wallingford staff report declines in student substance use but highlight mental-health and help-seeking gaps
Summary
District staff told the Board that high-school substance use fell between 2023 and 2025, while persistent sadness, self-harm attempts and low help-seeking from school staff remain concerns; the presentation outlined prevention programs and recommended outreach to increase middle-school survey participation.
Mrs. Turner, district staff member, presented results from the Wallingford Youth Risk Behavior Survey to the Wallingford School District Board of Education, reporting declines in student substance use between the 2023 and 2025 administrations while flagging continuing mental-health challenges and low help-seeking from school staff.
The results cover high school students only this year because, the presenter said, board policy requires parental opt-in for middle school surveys and participation was too low to yield reliable middle-school data. Mrs. Turner reported that 940 high school students — about 57 percent of the high school population — completed the survey.
The data showed reductions in recent 30-day substance use: alcohol use fell from 12.1 percent to 8 percent, marijuana from 8.2 percent to 5.9 percent, vaping from 8 percent to 6.2 percent and binge drinking (defined in the presentation as five or more drinks in a 30-day period) from 5.1 percent to 3 percent. Cigarette use declined from 1.2 percent to 0.8 percent.
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