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February 27, 4:00-5:30 pm ET
What's New
HHS/Office of Adolescent Health Updates State-by-State Adolescent Mental Health Facts. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health has recently updated its state summaries that focus on adolescent mental health. Each state page reports on positive social skills, depressive symptoms, depressive episodes and suicidal thoughts, attempts, and injuries. Learn More
Community and Family |
Families and communities take an active role in nurturing and educating children, which connects them to the schools in meaningful ways. The following products, research articles and briefs, and tools provide information about the role of families and the community in creating positive school environments and facilitating effective school engagement.
Featured Resource(s):
Growing up Drug-Free: A Parent’s Guide to Prevention (2012)
Provides a user-friendly guide for what to do and how to communicate about the harmful effects of illicit drugs and alcohol to children from elementary through high school. Organized in 6 major sections: 1) How This Book Will Help You? 2) What Substances Do Kids Use? 3) Why Do Kids Use Drugs? 4) How Do I Teach My Child About Drugs? 5) What If I Think My Child is Using Drugs? 6) Resources.
2012 National Drug Control Strategy
Provides a blueprint for reducing illicit drug use and its harmful consequences in America that includes effforts to be undertaken by Federal agencies in partnership with state, local, tribal, and international counterparts to prevent illicit drug use in our communities; intervene early
in the health care system; strengthen drug treatment services and support the millions of Americans in recovery; break the cycle of drug use, crime, and incarceration; disrupt domestic drug production and trafficking; strengthen international partnerships; and improve drug-related information systems.
Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner's Guide
Helps practitioners conduct fast, effective alcohol screens and interventions with patients, even during brief, acute care visits. Offers empirically derived tools, tips, and resources and outlines different levels of intervention with tips for topics to cover.
Balancing Student Privacy and School Safety: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act for Elementary and Secondary Schools
Discusses, according to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, under what emergency situations it is acceptable, for safety reasons, that a school override the "written consent" requirement.
Best Practices To Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model, Second Edition
Provides guidance on how communities can best address an existing or emerging youth gang problem.
Civil Rights Data Collection: 2009-10 Data Summary Report
Summarizes analysis of equity and educational opportunities between various ethnicities in public schools with attention to Resource Equity, College and Career Readiness, and Discipline.
Creating Safe and Drug-Free Schools: An Action Guide
Helps school and community leaders, parents, and students develop a strategy to ensure safe schools in their communities with action steps for schools, parents, students, and community and business groups; information briefs on specific issues affecting school safety; and research and evaluation findings, a list of resources, and additional readings.
Effects and Consequences of Underage Drinking
Presents findings from a literature review that investigated how underage drinking can affect a youth’s physical, emotional, and neurological health. Discusses the personal, legal, and economic consequences of underage drinking.
Family Skills Training for Parents and Children
Features the Strengthening Families Program, reflecting research that indicates that the most effective interventions build parent, child, and family skills.
Gang Prevention: An Overview of Research and Programs
Presents an overview of gang research and programs in the United States and examines how gangs form and why youth join them.
Girls' Delinquency
Examines rising trends in girls’ delinquency in the 1990s.
Helping Children and Youth With Serious Mental Health Needs: Systems of Care
Provides a resource list and information on systems of care and mental health needs in children and youth; defines systems of care, describes specific services, and provides outcome data about the impact of systems of care services and supports.
Human Trafficking of Children in the United States: A Fact Sheet for Schools
Offers information on what human trafficking is and how it can affect schools. It also provides a list of indicators one can you use to identify a vicitim of sex trafficking, as well as tips on how to report it.
Keep Kids Alcohol Free: Strategies for Action
Describes three basic prevention strategies and ways they can be applied in the home, the school, and the community, and offers effective, practical strategies for communities that have decided to take action to prevent underage drinking, especially among children and young adolescents.
Keeping Your Teens Drug-Free: A Family Guide
Discusses skills parents and caregivers can use to prevent illicit drug use among teens. Describes problems caused by marijuana, alcohol, and other substances; signs of drug use; and ways to enforce rules, give advice, and deal with teens caught using drugs.
Keeping Your Teens Drug-Free: A Guide for African American Parents and Caregivers
Discusses skills African American parents and caregivers can use to prevent illicit drug use among teens. Discusses negative effects caused by marijuana, alcohol, and other substances; signs of drug use; and ways to get help from others to keep teens healthy.
Keeping Your Teens Drug-Free: A Guide for Hispanic Families (bilingual version)
Lists the negative effects of smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, and taking other drugs, especially for teens. Offers a resource guide and suggestions to parents about setting rules geared toward substance abuse prevention and parenting techniques to discourage drug use.
Maximizing Your Role as a Teen Influencer: What You Can Do To Help Prevent Teen Prescription Drug Abuse
Includes a complete workshop module, handouts and instructions, as well as real-life scenarios and information about warning signs and symptoms, common myths about teen prescription drug abuse, brochures and sample promotional materials.
Navigating the Teen Years: A Parent's Handbook for Raising Healthy Teens
Gives tips and checklists to increase awareness and help parents guide their teens to a healthy life. Discusses setting expectations and rules, monitoring teens, and being a good role model to prevent problems such as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use.
Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the Way toward Healthier Youth
Reviews the science and make recommendations about nutrition standards for foods and beverages offered in direct competition with school-provided meals and snacks. Includes a set of four audience-specific fact sheets as a resource for school staff, parents, and youth to answer commonly asked questions about the report and provide recommendations for implementing the nutrition standards.
Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health
Defines and describes parent engagement and identifies specific strategies and actions that schools can take to increase parent engagement in schools’ health promotion activities.
Parenting to Prevent Childhood Alcohol Use
Reviews parental influence on a child’s alcohol use and suggests strategies for parents to employ in helping their children develop healthy attitudes toward drinking while minimizing its risk.
Parents’ Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: Rights Regarding Children’s Education Records
Explains that, under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act , once a student is 18 years old, rights to view educational records are under the student’s discretion, but identifies special situations when parents may still gain access to records once the student is 18 years old, such as when safety or legal matters are at hand.
Preventing Tobacco Use Amoung Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General
Examines in detail the epidemiology, health effects, and causes of tobacco use among youth ages 12 through 17 and young adults ages 18 through 25. Also highlights the efficacy of strategies to prevent young people from using tobacco. Has an accompanying consumer booklet with practical steps and information for addressing youth tobacco use and fact sheet that provides an overview of key findings from the report.
Resilient Girls--Factors that Protect Against Delinquency
Describes how four factors—presence of a caring adult, school connectedness, school success, and religiosity—affect girls’ propensity towards delinquency.
Restraint and Seclusion: Resource Document
Presents 15 principles for state, district, and school staff; parents; and other stakeholders to consider when developing policies and procedures which should be in writing on the use of restraint and seclusion; and highlights the current state of practice and implementation considerations for each principle.
SCOPE Thought Piece
Provides thoughts from an assembled group of prevention education practitioners and experts on the biggest questions facing prevention educators today.
Suicide and Bullying Issue Brief
Examines the relationship between suicide and bullying among children and adolescents, with special attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. Also explores strategies for preventing these problems.
Technology and Youth: Protecting Your Child from Electronic Aggression
Provides an overview of electronic aggression, any type of harassment or bullying that occurs through e-mail, a chat room, instant messaging, a website (including blogs), or text messaging and provides parents and caregivers with strategies for protecting children from this type of violence.
The Abuse of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs
Warns parents about the dangers of teens misusing prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs. Lists prevention tips, signs that teens are misusing prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs, and facts about the names and sources of abused drugs.
The School Environment and Adolescent Well-Being: Beyond Academics
Presents national estimates from a variety of sources on the school environment of adolescents in the areas of health, safety, social support, academics, and civic engagement.
Tips for Helping Students Recovering from Traumatic Events
Provides practical information for parents and students who are coping with the aftermath of a natural disaster, as well as teachers, coaches, school administrators and others who are helping those affected.
Tips for Talking to Children and Youth After Traumatic Events: A Guide for Parents and Educators
Helps parents and teachers recognize and address problems in children and teens affected by trauma after an act of violence; describes signs of stress reactions that are common in young trauma survivors at different ages, and offers tips on how to help.
Tips for Teens Drug Use Prevention Series
Informs teens about the dangers of drug use, including short- and long-term health risks and ways the drug affects the brain. Details signs of use, statistics about teen use of drug, and answers questions about common myths of drug and use of that drug. Lists slang terms for drug.
Top Health Issues for LGBT Populations Information and Resource Kit
Equips prevention professionals, healthcare providers, and educators with information on current health issues among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations. Includes an overview of terms related to gender identity and sexual expression.
Understanding Bullying
Provides a working definition of bullying; reviews it's status as a public health issue and the effect bullying has on mental health. Also provides prevention tips, CDC's approach to bullying prevention, and related resources.
Working Together to Help Youth Thrive in Schools and Communities: Systems of Care
Provides an overview of the systems of care program and how youth and their families improve on various behavioral and mental health outcomes a result of receiving services in systems of care.
Youths' Choice of Consultant for Serious Problems Related to Substance Use
Presents statistics on consultants (e.g., parent, friend, sibling) that teens talk to about serious problems, including substance use; examines if cigarette, alcohol, and drug use varies with choice of consultant and if the choice varies with age and gender.
4-1-1 on Bullying
Provides a summary of the research and research to practice strategies regarding bullying, as well as current research updates and many resources for parents, teachers, and students.
Breaking School Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement
Describes the analysis of millions of school and juvenile justice records in Texas to improve policymakers’ understanding of who is suspended and expelled from public secondary schools, and the impact of those removals on students’ academic performance and juvenile justice system involvement.
Co-Occurrence of Substance Use Behaviors in Youth
Examines the prevalence and overlap of substance-related behaviors among youth, making comparisons based on age group, gender, and race/ethnicity.
Gang Prevention: An Overview of Research and Programs
Presents an overview of gang research and programs in the United States and examines how gangs form and why youth join them.
Highlights of the 2006 National Youth Gang Survey
Summarizes findings from the 2006 survey and reports data on the number of gangs, gang members, and gang-related crime. Based on survey results, it is estimated that approximately 26,500 gangs and 785,000 gang members were active in the United States in 2006.
Highlights of the 2007 National Youth Gang Survey
Reports findings from the 2007 National Youth Gang Survey. Based on survey results, it is estimated that nearly 3,550 jurisdictions across the United States experienced gang activity in 2007.
Highlights of the 2008 National Youth Gang Survey
Reports findings from the 2008 National Youth Gang Survey. Based on survey results, it is estimated that more than 3,330 jurisdictions across the United States experienced gang activity in 2008.
Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2011
Provides data on crime and safety at school from the perspective of students, teachers, and principals. Provides crime and safety information for students’ travel to and from school. Highlights the most current detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools and school environments and responses to violence and crime at school.
Parental Disapproval of Youths' Substance Use
Reports on perceptions among youths age 12 to 17 about their parents' approval or disapproval of daily alcohol use, drug use, or cigarette smoking; compares youths' perceptions to their reported substance use; and gives statistics on age, race and ethnicity, and gender.
Perceptions of Risk from Substance Use among Adolescents
Explores age and gender trends among adolescents' perceived risk associated with the use of cigarettes, heroin, LSD, cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana.
Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Gang Affiliation Among High-Risk Youth: A Public Health Approach
Assesses risk and protective factors associated with gang affiliation among a high-risk youth population to better inform primary prevention strategies.
Seasonality of Youth's First-Time Use of Marijuana, Cigarettes, or Alcohol
Examines the percentage of teens age 12 to 17 who begin using alcohol, marijuana, or cigarettes each month.
Substance Use and Delinquent Behavior Among Serious Adolescent Offenders
Presents some key findings on the link between adolescent substance use and serious offending. Serious/chronic offenders are much more likely than other juvenile offenders to be substance users and have related disorders.
Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context
Examines the involvement of girls in violent activity (including whether such activity has increased relative to the increase for boys) and the contexts in which girls engage in violent behavior.
Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner's Guide
Helps practitioners conduct fast, effective alcohol screens and interventions with patients, even during brief, acute care visits. Offers empirically derived tools, tips, and resources and outlines different levels of intervention with tips for topics to cover.
Human Trafficking of Children in the United States: A Fact Sheet for Schools
Offers information on what human trafficking is and how it can affect schools. It also provides a list of indicators one can you use to identify a vicitim of sex trafficking, as well as tips on how to report it.
Safe Communities, Safe Schools: School Safety Glossary
Simple, concise tool for schools, families, and communities.
2011 OSDFS National Conference: Project EAT
Shares how to create programs that are integrated into and beyond schools and increase the number of minutes students are physically active and the amount of fruits and vegetables students consume, such as Project Educate, Act, Thrive (EAT) which has integrated physical education and garden-based nutrition education into more than 50 under-resourced schools.
2012 OSHS Grantee TA Symposium: Creating a Positive School Climate through Community and School Partnerships
Provides examples of student success programs partnering with their local communities and other student success related programs within or beyond the school itself in order to to create wrap around intervention systems for those students who are struggling academically or behaviorally to various degrees.
Creating a Safe and Respectful Environment on Our Nation's School Buses
Houses archive of the event called "Creating a Safe and Respectful Environment on Our Nation's School Buses" organized to bring together national and state leaders, representatives of key education organizations, and other federal agencies who want to improve working conditions for our nation’s school bus drivers, to create a safe and respectful environment on our schools buses, and to generate confidence and partnerships in school with administrators, teachers, parents, students and community members.
Dating Matters: Understanding Teen Dating Violence Prevention
60-minute, interactive training designed to help educators, youth-serving organizations, and others working with teens understand the risk factors and warning signs associated with teen dating violence.
School Climate Survey Compendium (as of December 20, 2011)
To assist educators and education agencies in locating a valid and reliable needs assessment that suits their needs, the Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center is developing a compendium of student, staff, and family surveys that can be used as part of a school climate needs assessment. Below is an initial list of school climate survey batteries. (Alternatively, click here to download a summary table (PDF) of each survey by respondent type.)
Please note that the Office of Safe and Healthy Students does not endorse any particular scale or survey presented in this compendium. Additionally, the database presented is not an exhaustive listing of available measures or survey instruments. If you would like to nominate a survey that is not currently included in the compendium, click on the link below.
Nominate a Survey
Alaska School Climate and Connectedness Survey
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students, Staff |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
These survey instruments are not publicly available. Please contact Kim Kendziora at kkendziora@air.org for more information about this survey. |
American Institutes for Research Conditions for Learning Survey
Constructs |
Safe and Respectful Climate, High Expectations, Student Support, Social and Emotional Learning |
Respondents |
Students |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
There is no charge for using this survey. Please contact David Osher at dosher@air.org for additional information. |
California Healthy Kids Survey
Constructs |
School connectedness, School supports - caring relationships, School supports - high expectations, School supports - opportunities for meaningful participation, Community supports - caring relationships, Community supports - high expectations, Community supports - opportunities for meaningful participation, Tobacco, alcohol, or drug use at school, Physical/ verbal/emotional violence victimization, Physical/ verbal/emotional violence perpetration, Harassment victimization, Peer supports - caring relationships, Peer supports - high expectations, Home supports - caring relationships, Home supports - high expectations, Home supports - opportunities for meaningful participation, Problem solving Self-efficacy, Cooperation and communication, Empathy, Self-awareness |
Respondents |
Students |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Please note that while a copy of the survey instrument is publicly available at http://chks.wested.org/administer/download, it is copyright protected. Information on obtaining the survey instrument can be found at: http://chks.wested.org/. |
California School Climate Survey
Constructs |
Collegiality, Resource provisions and training, Professional development – instruction, Professional development – cultural competence, Professional development – meeting student needs, Positive student learning environment, Caring and respectful relationships, High expectations of students, Opportunities for meaningful participation, Cultural sensitivity, Clarity and equity of discipline policies, Perceived school safety, Learning facilitative behavior, Learning barrier – risk behavior, Learning barrier – interpersonal conflict and destructive behavior |
Respondents |
Staff |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Please note that while a copy of the survey instrument is publicly available at http://cscs.wested.org/training_support, it is copyright protected. Information on obtaining the survey instrument can be found at: http://cscs.wested.org/. |
California School Parents Survey
Constructs |
Facilitation of parent involvement, Positive student learning environment, Opportunities for meaningful participation, Cultural sensitivity, Clarity and equity of discipline policies, Perceived school safety, Learning barriers |
Respondents |
Parents |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Please note that while a copy of the survey instrument is publicly available at http://csps.wested.org/, it is copyright protected. Information on obtaining the survey instrument can be found at: http://cscs.wested.org/. |
The Center for Research in Educational Policy School Climate Inventory
Constructs |
Orderly School Environment; Instructional Leadership; Positive Learning Environment; Parent and Community Involvement; Well-Developed and Implemented Instruction; Expectations for Students; Collaboration among Administration, Faculty, and Students |
Respondents |
Teachers, Administrators and Professional Staff |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
This survey instrument is not publicly available. Please contact the Center for Research in Educational Policy at CREP@memphis.edu or 1-866-670-6147 for more information. |
The Center for Social and Emotional Education Comprehensive School Climate Inventory
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students, Staff, Parents/Guardians, Community Members |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
These survey instruments are not publicly available. Please contact Darlene Faster, COO and Director of Communications, at the National School Climate Center at dfaster@schoolclimate.org or (212) 707-8799 x22 for more information on these surveys. |
Communities That Care Youth Survey
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
The 2010 survey instrument is not publicly available. Please contact Michael Arthur at marthur@u.washinton.edu for information about this survey. |
The Consortium on Chicago School Research Survey of Chicago Public Schools
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students, Staff |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Student surveys are available at http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/downloads/17242009_my_voice__9th-11th_student_codebook_.pdf and http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/downloads/23532009_my_voice_senior_student_codebook.pdf. Staff survey is available at http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/downloads/2009/HS_Teacher_Survey09Cdbk_8-6.pdf. Please note that the student and staff surveys are currently being updated and are copyrighted. Please contact Nick Montgomery at nmontgomery@uchicago.edu for additional information on these surveys. |
Culture of Excellence & Ethics Assessment
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students, Faculty/Staff, Parents |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
These survey instruments can be used free of charge, subject to the conditions of the User Agreement, and can be found at: http://excellenceandethics.com/assess/ceea.php. Please contact Vlad Khmelkov at vkhmelkov@excellenceandethics.com for additional information. |
Effective School Battery
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students, Teachers |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Additional information and order forms for these survey instruments can be found at: http://www.education.umd.edu/EDCP/schoolassess/Tools/ESB/ESB.html. Please contact Eva Yui at climate-assess@umd.edu for additional information. |
Perceived School Experiences Scale
Constructs |
Academic Motivation, Academic Press, School Connectedness |
Respondents |
Students |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
There is no charge for using this survey. Please contact Dawn Anderson-Butcher at anderson-butcher.1@osu.edu for additional information. |
Pride Learning Environment Survey
Constructs |
School climate; teacher and student respect; student discipline; school safety; teacher to student relationships; teacher collaboration; student engagement; student encouragement; frequency of substance use; effect of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; age of first substance use; perceived harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; parents’ feelings towards alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; place of substance use; time of substance use; violence; bullying |
Respondents |
Students |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Please note that while a copy of the survey instrument is publicly available at http://dbdemo.pridesurveys.com, it is copyright protected. Information on obtaining the survey instrument can be found at: |
Pride Teaching Environment Survey
Constructs |
Like Teaching, Like Administrators – My School, Like Administrators – Instructional Leadership, Effective Teaching, Teacher Evaluation, Principal Support, Teacher Respect, Participatory Decision-making, Staff Collegiality, Desired Involvement in Improving Teaching Practices, Current Involvement in School Policies and Practices, Desired Involvement in Teaching Practice Policies, Student Discipline, Student Conduct Rules/Policies, Teacher Stress, Classroom Support, Teacher Attitude, Interpersonal Relationships, Student Engagement, Teacher Pay, Facilities and Resources, Teacher Workload |
Respondents |
Faculty |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Please note that while a copy of the survey instrument is publicly available at http://dbdemo.pridesurveys.com, it is copyright protected. Information on obtaining the survey instrument can be found at: |
Search Institute Creating a Great Place to Learn Survey
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students, Staff |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
These survey instruments are not publicly available. Please contact the Search Institute for additional information at http://www.search-institute.org/survey-services. |
Secondary Classroom Climate Assessment Instrument
Constructs |
Discipline environment, Student interactions, Learning assessment, Attitude and culture |
Respondents |
Students, Staff |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
Survey instrument is not publicly available. Please contact John Shindler, Director of the Alliance for the Study of School Climate at jshindl@calstatela.edu for additional information on the CCAI. |
Secondary School Climate Assessment Instrument
Constructs |
|
Respondents |
Students, Faculty, Parents |
Reports |
|
Survey Instruments |
This survey instrument is not publicly available. Please contact John Shindler, Director of the Alliance for the Study of School Climate at jshindl@calstatela.edu for additional information on the SCAI. |