Superintendent Arntzen Announces Opening of the Online Youth Risk Behavior Survey

• Brian O'Leary
• December 18 2024

HELENA – Superintendent Arntzen is excited to announce that the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) will now be available in a secure online format using school computers. The Office of Public Instruction (OPI) has conducted the YRBS since 1991 and is offered to middle and high school students. The new online survey was adopted after receiving feedback from students, teachers, and superintendents. Paper forms and booklets will be available to schools as well. Registration is open until March 1, 2025.

“This is another step toward innovation,” said Superintendent Elsie Arntzen. “Moving to an online format allows schools to have more flexibility and minimizes the impact on classroom learning. The data collected from this survey puts our children’s well-being first.”

The online survey will collect data anonymously by randomly generating one-time-use participation codes. Students will:

• not be required to provide any personally identifiable information
• have the right to opt out of the survey
• be able to skip any questions they prefer not to answer

The questionnaires will be provided to schools and parents in advance for review. Parents can choose to have their children opt out of participation.

In the time that the survey has been administered, OPI has been able to aggregate data on health behaviors and risk concerns that our Montana students face. This data has helped to drive decisions to provide the best education and training for teachers and support staff on mental health outcomes in Montana schools.

The YRBS helps Montana schools understand the continual mental health issues facing our students and how to improve outcomes. The survey is crucial for conducting needs-based assessments for:

• program development
• long-range planning for the school and community
• curriculum revision

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) targets specific schools throughout the country to participate in the YRBS. Montana is the only state that offers all schools the chance to participate in the survey. This valuable data is used to make comparisons to state and national data, which can create funding and grant opportunities. The information is utilized by other state and county agencies to determine the health of the adolescents in the schools.

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