Lively hearing on youth risk behavior survey amendment — agencies, clinicians and advocates warn against converting YRBS to opt-in

The House Education Committee held an extended hearing on an amendment to HB 446 that would change the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) from an opt-out to an opt-in model and would require affirmative parental consent before a student may take the survey.

Dozens of witnesses and committee members debated the amendment’s consequences for data quality, public health planning, school-based services and parental rights. Public-health officials, behavioral-health advocates, school boards, pediatricians and regional public health network representatives urged the committee not to convert the current opt-out model to opt-in.

Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education told the committee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requires a representative sample for statewide results and that the CDC generally treats an overall response rate of 60% as the threshold for a representative sample. DHHS staff said New Hampshire’s 2021 and 2023 overall response rate hovered around the 64–65% range, close to but not far above the CDC threshold; they cautioned that opt-in would risk dropping participation to the point that state and regional estimates could not be produced.

Public-health witnesses said YRBS data supports school districts, regional coalitions and state agencies in applying for federal and private grants, monitoring bullying, substance-use trends, mental-health measures and other indicators, and in directing prevention and intervention resources. David Goldstein, representing the Association of Chiefs of Police and a veteran law-enforcement leader, described obtaining grant funds in Franklin tied to YRBS data and urged maintaining the current process to sustain prevention programming.

Clinicians and mental-health advocates pushed back on the argument that asking youth about suicidal ideation or substance use could spark harmful behavior. Several advocates, and NAMI-New Hampshire, said the evidence does not show that asking such questions increases risk. They noted the YRBS is anonymous, voluntary and designed as a public-health surveillance tool, not a diagnostic screen.

School and community groups, including Getting to Y (a youth-led data-use program), told the committee that students use the YRBS data to design peer-led interventions and that disaggregated school- or regional-level data is used locally to plan services. The State Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC-compliant sampling method explained that the CDC will allow a nonresponse bias analysis instead of the 60% threshold where appropriate; but DHHS staff warned that opt-in states have experienced steep participation declines (New Jersey cited as an example) and, in some years, lacked usable YRBS results.

Parents and organizations that support opt-in argued the policy protects parental rights and cited the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) of 1978. Opponents said parents already receive notice, have the option to opt out, and that requiring opt-in would deny potentially beneficial supports to students whose parents do not respond.

After hours of testimony the committee had not taken a final vote on the amendment. Lawmakers asked DHHS to provide additional details on sampling, prevalence thresholds and how district-level reports are handled; some members asked whether the state could produce district-level data or aggregate reports for local use. The matter remains under committee consideration.