2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey - LEA Results

Description

In 2009, school staff administered the YRBS to over 29,000 eighth to twelfth grade Vermont students in 143 schools representing 55 local education agencies (supervisory unions, school districts, and public/private institutions). 

Participation by schools and individual students was completely voluntary.  To protect student privacy, the survey was anonymous.  It is impossible to identify an individual student’s responses.

The report is based on responses from the students who completed the survey.  Some schools within LEAs may not have participated, some students were absent on the day the survey was administered, and other students may have declined to participate or incorrectly filled out the survey.  

Many precautions were taken to ensure the reliability and validity of the results. The questionnaire was carefully designed and thoroughly tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey was anonymous to encourage honesty.  Over 100 consistency checks were run on the data to exclude careless, invalid, or logically inconsistent answers.  These precautions reduce most sources of error.

We urge caution when comparing one supervisory union to another or to the statewide results.  The statewide results are weighted to represent the population of all eighth to twelfth grade students in Vermont. The supervisory union results are not weighted and only represent those students who took the survey.  Participation rates vary from school to school, and supervisory unions with a large percentage of older students may have a higher prevalence of risk behaviors than one with a small percentage of older students.

View and Print

All documents in pdf format.


Return to Top