Letter to Agreeing Schools

2017 and 2019 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey

Appendix O3b

Letter to Agreeing Schools

Dear Principal/School Contact:

Thank you for agreeing to participate in the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Adolescent and School Health. Results from the YRBS will help to determine the extent to which adolescents practice health risk behaviors and to develop education programs and other strategies to help reduce these behaviors. A report summarizing the results will be published the following year and your school will be notified when the report is available for download.

Enclosed is a packet of materials for each teacher listed on the enclosed Summary of School Arrangements Form. These packets contain: the Summary of School Arrangements Form, a Data Collection Checklist, a survey fact sheet, parental permission forms, instructions to be read when distributing permission forms, and reminder slips. If requested, parental permission forms and reminders slips are provided in Spanish. Any returned permission forms will remain at the school and are to be maintained according to your school’s parental permission form policies and procedures.

Your support and encouragement will help to ensure a high rate of participation among your students. A high participation rate is needed to produce valid national data. We ask that you:

1. Distribute the enclosed packets to each teacher. Ask them to fill out the Data Collection Checklist, distribute a parental permission form to each student in the selected class at least 10 days before the survey administration date, and encourage their students to return the forms. Please ask teachers to distribute reminder slips and/or additional permission forms as needed.

2. Please check with teachers a few days prior to the survey administration to make sure parental permission forms have been distributed.

3. Identify someone within the school to whom participating teachers may refer students, in the unlikely event the survey raises questions about health risk behaviors. This person may be a guidance counselor, school nurse, or other staff member. Let the teachers know who this is, prior to the survey.

4. Complete the enclosed School Enrollment Form (tan form) and the School Award Form (white form). Please give them to the study representative on the day of the survey.

The participation of your students in the YRBS will help the CDC, educators, and public health officials assess and improve efforts to reduce priority health risk behaviors among adolescents throughout the Nation. If you have any questions, please call me toll-free at 1-800-675-9727 between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. eastern time. Thank you again for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Kate Flint, Project Director

National Youth Risk Behavior Survey