11-13-2023 3:36pm

Alamogordo Public Schools Youth Health Survey

Chris Edwards Editor

As a reminder to parents and taxpayers as required by New Mexico State law this week, students at Chaparral Middle School, Holloman Middle School, Mountain View Middle School, and Alamogordo High School will participate in the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (NM-YRRS).

The survey asks important questions about student health behaviors and has been conducted every two years by the New Mexico Department of Health and New Mexico Public Education Department for more than 20 years.

NM-YRRS is an anonymous, voluntary survey.

Parents, you may opt your child out of the survey, and students do not have to answer any questions they do not want to answer at any time.

Students may choose not to take the survey. Students were randomly selected by the NM-YRRS.

Letter of Explanation and Consent Forms were sent home with selected students on Thursday, November 9th.

To learn more, visit the NM-YRRS parent resources page: https://youthrisk.org/home/parent-resources/

Some facts concerning the survey from NMPED…

Most of the questions on the NM-YRRS are the ones that are included in all the Youth Risk and Behavior Surveys that the CDC sponsors in most of the country. New Mexico has added a small number of questions, including questions on resiliency, and that is why the NM survey is called the Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey.

There is no evidence that asking questions about risky behavior encourages students to engage in risky behavior. Research has found that asking people about suicidal thoughts and behaviors can actually reduce their suicidality.

To see general data specific to your school system visit this page: https://youthrisk.org/newSite/data-collection/youth-risk-resiliency-survey/#dataRequest
For the School District Data Release Request, click here to download.

All information is confidential and students are not identified. The NM-YRRS is an anonymous survey, meaning that it is not possible to identify which student completed a specific survey. The NM-YRRS adheres to the highest standards of the ethical protection of human subjects’ rights, and the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center’s Institutional Review Board regularly reviews NM-YRRS procedures to ensure participants’ privacy and confidentiality.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) selects schools to participate in the survey such that the group of participating schools is similar to all of the schools in the state. The group of schools that the CDC selects for the NM-YRRS is called the “CDC sample.” Albuquerque Public Schools, the NM Department of Health, and the NM Public Education select additional schools for participation based on the schools’ participation in special projects or the need to include larger numbers of students for sub-group analysis, such as rural schools. For more information about the sample design, contact yrrs@youthrisk.org.

The NM-YRRS funding is from the New Mexico Department of Health (NM DOH), the New Mexico Public Education Department. The NM DOH receives support for the NM-YRRS from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.