Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Wellbeing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District presents Pennsylvania Youth Survey; administration outlines use for mental-health and prevention planning
Summary
Dr. Kristen Horton presented the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PACE) plan and timeline. The survey, administered online and offered to grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 the week of Nov. 17, is voluntary, anonymous and used to inform prevention programs, bullying initiatives and grant applications.
Dr. Kristen Horton, director of pupil services for Boyertown Area School District, told the board the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PACE) is a biannual, anonymous online survey administered to students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12. Horton said the survey probes school climate, mental-health attitudes and behaviors, alcohol/tobacco/other-drug use, violence and risk and protective factors.
Horton said PACE provides a snapshot of students' perceptions and helps identify trends by grade level; she gave the example that earlier survey data identified vaping behaviors at the middle-school level and prompted prevention programming in the elementary grades. She noted PACE data are often combined with the district's SAP (Student Assistance Program) data and cited past use of PACE results in successful PCCD grant applications that supported school-based substance misuse counseling and a drug and alcohol counselor at the high school.
The district plans to offer the online survey the week of Nov. 17 in its two middle schools and the high school. Participation is voluntary: parents may opt students out, and students present in class who are uncomfortable with any question may skip questions. The district uses the online format to receive results sooner and to reduce administration time; Horton said the online survey takes about 30 minutes. She also said the district receives aggregated reports by grade (6, 8, 10 and 12), not by subsites such as east or west middle schools, so the principal and building teams receive grade-level reports for action planning.
Board members asked about confidentiality and whether responses could be traced to individual students. Horton said survey responses do not include names or identifying information and that the district locks each building's link at the end of administration to prevent further entries. She also said IP addresses are blocked from transfer and the dataset is provided as aggregated grade-level results only.
Why it matters District leaders use PACE to identify areas for prevention, to help set building goals and to support grant applications that fund counseling and programming. Timely administration and the ability for parents to opt out are important procedural details that the board reviewed.
