Ada school students from grades 7 to 11 are particpating in a statewide survey this spring titled: Ohio Healthy Youth Environments Survey (OHYES!).

OHYES! represents the collaborative effort of the Ohio Departments of Education, Health and Mental Health & Addiction Services, Ohio National Guard and representatives of educational and youth serving organizations.

The survey is a free, voluntary, web-based survey to collect information that schools and communities can use to access resources to reduce risk behaviors and create healthy and safe community, school and family environments.

CLICK HERE for Q and A from the Ada schools about the survey.

Here is some additional background on the survey:

OHYES! is a statewide survey of Ohio school students in 7th and 11th grades to be first conducted in fall of 2015. Since the survey is free and web-based, schools may elect to also survey other grades to gain a more complete picture of the strengths and needs of youth in their communities. 

School districts that participate will have access to district, county, state, (and for some items even national) level data to help Ohio schools, community leaders, and parents identify important areas of need and track improvements in health and safety over time.

The survey includes 111 questions about health, safety and behavioral health factors. School districts may choose to remove questions that could be sensitive to some communities (sexual behavior and suicide) or add up to 10 questions that are important to their community.

OHYES! state and county-level data will be publicly available on the Ohio Network of Care website along with other indicators of community health allowing schools, community coalitions, and community public health and safety networks to make data-informed decisions on how best to support school and community programs and policies.

Student participation in the OHYES! is completely voluntary and anonymous.