Youth Assessment Survey 2023
The Ottawa County Youth Assessment Survey (YAS) will soon be given to 8th, 10th, and 12th graders across the county. The survey asks very personal questions. Here is the 2023 survey that will be given to kids. Contact your district to opt your child out.
Here are a few sample questions:
During the past 12 months, did you make a plan about how you would attempt suicide?
During the past 30 days, how many times did you use marijuana?
What percentage of the students in your grade do you think saw or accessed internet pornography in the past 30 days?
During the past 3 months, with how many people have you had sexual intercourse?
Have you done any of the following to lose weight or to keep from gaining weight? Go without eating for 24 hours or more
The Youth Assessment Survey (YAS) is 25 pages long and contains 226 questions. After 198 questions about deviancy, students are asked about their stress levels. Question 199 asks:
Stress is often described as a feeling of being overwhelmed, worried or run-down. Stress can affect people of all ages, genders, and circumstances. On a scale of 1 to 10, [] how would you rate your average level of stress during the past 30 days?
Each school district decides whether or not to participate in the YAS. This is likely one reason why the conservatives on the Allendale School Board are being targeted. They voted to "opt in" to take the survey and removed the sexual questions. A big win for protecting children!
Amanda Sorrelle, Principal at Lakeshore Middle School in Grand Haven, sent the following email to parents regarding the survey.
“On October 10th, our eighth graders will be taking a survey that is given countywide to 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. The survey is anonymous and will be taken online during science class at Lakeshore. Students are asked questions regarding their health and risk behaviors in the following areas; unintentional injuries, violence and bullying, social media involvement and sexting, sadness and suicidal behavior, alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, dietary behavior and physical activity, overweight and weight perception, housing, stress, reproductive health, and risk and protective factors. If you wish to opt your student out of the survey, please sign the attached letter and have your student bring it to their science teacher. We would like as many students to take the survey as possible as it helps our school district and county determine the needs of our teens to coordinate education programming.”
According to this letter, the purpose of the survey is to, “help our school district and county determine the needs of our teens to coordinate education programming.” This data collection is directly related to Social Emotional Learning (SEL).
In order to determine where to focus non-academic lessons, data is collected which is used to justify training. By aggregating data based on identity categories, district leaders can view how subgroups such as English learners and economically disadvantaged rank against those whose primary language is English and those from economically stable homes. For example, the survey could show that white, English-speaking, girls, tend to smoke more marijuana than African American girls, or are bullied more, or use diet pills to lose weight. To create equity, subgroups can be identified as “high-risk” or “at-risk” and additional resources and training can then be allocated to these subgroups.
No matter how the students answer, the YAS can be used to justify more resource allocation. The YAS asks loaded questions that nearly always indicate there are problems to be addressed, and the problems can only be fixed by adding more resources. This is a vicious cycle. Let me show you how it works.
Question 86 asks students; If you have ever used marijuana, how old were you when you used marijuana for the first time?
I have never used marijuana
8 years old or younger
9 or 10 years old
11 or 12 years old
13 or 14 years old
15 or 16 years old
17 years old or older
Using only this one question, schools can justify implementing drug awareness trainings. They may say, 5% of the students say they have tried marijuana at age 13. To fix the problem, the district may say we need to implement drug awareness training for students ages 11 or 12. After implementing awareness training, it is possible even younger students may try marijuana. Then the next time the survey is given, training at even younger grades can be justified.
The focus on surveying and data collection is a vicious cycle that moves the entire focus of the educational system away from merit-based academics. Teachers, administrators, and those funding the survey, are being tricked into believing the Youth Assessment Survey is helping students. Under SEL, individualism fades as groups are identified and people are judged with respect to their group identities. When groups are ranked, there will always be hierarchies created. Rather than empowering these children to be independent and teaching them how to overcome challenges, SEL teaches them to be dependent on the system.
Another problem with the YAS survey is that it normalizes all sorts of deviant behaviors. For example, the following questions not only invade student privacy, they are suggestive in nature.
During the past 30 days, how many times did you ride in a car or other vehicle driven by someone who had been drinking alcohol?
During the past 12 months, when you had sexual intercourse and didn't really want to, were you: Physically forced, threatened, made to feel guilty, under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
During the past 12 months, when you were physically harmed on purpose in your home, were you harmed by: a parent/guardian? Another adult? Someone else in your home?
During the past 12 months, have you sent or posted a naked or semi-naked photo or video of yourself by text, email, social profile, website, blog, etc?
In other words, thoughts of doing the things suggested in questions have likely never even occurred to some students.
The Youth Assessment Survey was discussed during the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting on April 27, 2023. Lisa Uganski, representing the Ottawa County Public Health Department explained that the Youth Assessment Survey is developed by the Healthy Ottawa Advisory Council which includes representatives from local hospitals, the health department, non-profit organizations, and the OAISD.
You may remember Stacey Sills, the OAISD Coordinator of Health Education, who has links to many sexually controversial resources on her district live binder webpage. The YAS is paid for through grants from the Michigan Department of Health and community sponsors including:
Allendale Community Foundation
Coopersville Area Community Foundation
Holland / Zeeland Area Community Foundation
Grand Haven Area Community Foundation
Ottawa Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition
Arbor Circle
On June 27, 2023, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners passed a Resolution on protecting childhood innocence.
“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, no county staff or resources shall be allocated to activities, programs, events, content, or institutions which support, normalize, or encourage the sexualization of children and youth”
Through this resolution, it is likely that the participation of county employees in the YAS will be limited in future years, but it is up to parents and schools to opt-out, and community members to inform the community foundations providing the funding for this survey on its true effects. This survey is given under the guise of helping kids and reducing risky behaviors, but it does not appear to be working.