Madison Youth & Family Services (MYFS) is preparing to reveal results of a survey of Daniel Hand High School (DHHS) students administered last fall that addressed mental health, substance abuse issues, and developmental assets. MYFS Director Scott Cochran said it was the first comprehensive version of the survey used in Madison—and it’s likely to reveal new information about student’s attitudes and ideas not covered by previous versions of the survey, as well as potential flaws with the manner in which it was administered this year.

Created by Minnesota-based The Search Institute, the semi-annual survey of high school and sometimes middle school students is partly administered by the Madison Alcohol and Drug Education Coalition (MADE), and is meant to give school administrators and policymakers foundational data on how students relate to themselves and their community, as well as self-reported incidents of drug or alcohol use and other risky behaviors or attitudes.

A question about how accurately students would answer this survey arose due to the method in which it was administered. Selectman Scott Murphy said at a Board of Selectmen meeting earlier this month that student representatives had expressed concerns to the MYFS board about confidentiality of the survey. Students were logged in to their school accounts when they provided their answers, which are supposed to be entirely anonymous.

Cochran told The Source that there is no way for school or MYFS officials to access data or answers attached to particular accounts. The surveys are collected directly by The Search Institute, he said, which is later provided to MYFS or school officials without any identifying information or metadata attached.

“No one is able to trace back...We don’t have any identifying data at all,” he said. “It’s a neutral party. There’s no way to trace back any information.”

Though Cochran said MYFS “worked really hard” to make this clear to students, he confirmed that some had not understood or believed it- potentially causing their answers to be less than honest, out of fear they might suffer consequences for admitting to illicit behaviors or providing deeply personal information.

In the past, Madison has opted to use a paper version of survey, Cochran said, even though The Search Institute had offered an online version, partly due to these concerns. The Search Institute no longer provides a paper version, Cochran said.

Methodology questions aside, the survey still has useful information, Cochran said.

“There are a few things that we feel like really stuck out and that were probably pretty valid as far as the survey was concerned,” said Cochran. “And then there are certainly some areas where we think how students responded was impacted wither by how they felt about the survey itself or how they felt about the topic.”

Cochran said that he and other MYFS staff would speak on and listen to potential issues with interpreting this year’s survey results at the upcoming community forum.

The survey, which is used by other districts along the shoreline, including Guilford, has been “instrumental in identifying the magnitude of the issues our kids face, and also in helping us work collaboratively with the town agencies to develop interventions,” Madison Public Schools Superintendent Tom Scarice told The Source in an email this past fall.

Murphy mentioned a handful of other data points in the public Board of Selectmen meeting, with some positive trends, including a reduction in reported marijuana use. On the other hand, fewer students have reported feeling safe in their school, he said.

Cochran discussed survey results in general terms with The Source, saying he would rather have particular items or data points examined in a public, community forum in the near future. This is likely to take place early in February, he said, in front of the Board of Education with other town officials invited.

“This is not anything for us to sort of hide or to obfuscate in any way,” he said. “We’d much rather this be a really honest conversation about what’s going and allow people to ask questions.”

Cochran said that students feeling safe in school had been a topic of conversation not only in the context of the survey, but outside of any data. He said part of the reason to have the community conversation was to contextualize survey results with the experiences and reports of MYFS and school staff, as well as student’s own experiences.

Another reason to have to community conversation is that this survey includes questions and data on developmental assets—things like positive boundaries and social support systems. Both Cochran and Murphy said the community conversation would focus on this data as well.