Without adequate justification, Florida officials have made a poorly timed decision to pull out of a wide-ranging national survey measuring health and behavior risks among the state’s teenagers. The survey polls high school students anonymously on topics including diet, smoking, alcohol use, sexual behavior and mental health. Florida officials say they’ll run their own survey instead, but there’s no logical case for reinventing the wheel to collect this vitally important data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey has been conducted every other year since 1991. The school-based survey is administered by Florida’s health and education departments. But this year, state education officials opted out — without explanation or justification, which is in itself a bad look.
Interim Florida education commissioner Jacob Oliva later announced that Florida would run its own version of the survey, collecting most or all of the same information. The CDC’s 2021 questionnaire asked kids about safety issues like their seat belt use, whether they had texted while driving, gotten in fights or been bullied. It asked about their habits like smoking, vaping, drinking alcohol and using marijuana. And it delved into more private topics like suicidal thoughts or attempts, sexual activity, use of contraceptives and sexual assault.
