The Denver Post – Eric Gorski and Electa Draper
“When students in southern Colorado’s Center School District fill out voluntary, anonymous surveys about their health and behavior, the answers do not get dumped into a report no one reads. The district and agencies have used the data to land grants to tackle drug use and low parental involvement, superintendent George Welsh said. Another grant paid for an abstinence-oriented program local officials credit for helping cut in half teen birth rates in Saguache County, where more than eight in 10 students live in poverty. If districts must obtain permission from parents before students take the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, Welsh fears not enough will because they are too busy or not engaged, putting data at risk.”(more)