District Surveys

Educational Effectiveness Survey – Every year, we ask families to participate in our Educational Effectiveness Survey (EES) to help us determine areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. School and district administrators truly value this data, as we use it with teachers to plan for the improvement of our system. 

The EES survey is sent via email and is optional and voluntary. 

Healthy Youth Survey - This biennial anonymous and voluntary survey is administered to 6th-12th grade students across the state of Washington. The Healthy Youth Survey (HYS) is a collaborative effort of the Health Care Authority - Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (DBHR), the Department of Health (DOH), the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), and the contractor, Looking Glass Analytics.

The 2023 survey was the 18th statewide survey of Washington students. Participation has been steadily increasing over time, with a drop in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.

The HYS is designed to accomplish multiple goals:

• To deliver crucial information about the prevalence of major adolescent health risk behaviors to parents, the public, school officials, public health professionals, human service agencies and policymakers.
• To identify trends and patterns in adolescent health and risky behaviors, supporting the examination and evaluation of many different prevention, safety, and health promotion initiatives.
• To guide policy formation and improve program needs assessments of state agencies, local health jurisdictions, county prevention programs, community mobilization coalitions, and community public health and safety networks that serve youth.
• The survey also produces an analytic dataset for use by approved researchers and provides data to various community stakeholders for use in federal, state, local, or private agency grant applications.

Student participation is completely voluntary and anonymous. The administration procedures are designed to protect student privacy and anonymity. Students are not asked for their names or identification numbers. There is no way for survey responses to be linked back to students and no one can view the responses while students are taking the survey. When they finish the survey, students directly submit their survey anonymously. Schools plan an alternative activity for students who choose not to take the survey. Visit the HYS website for more information, including a FAQ.

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Survey – The SBIRT program is a broad mental health screening and support process used to identify students in need of mental health intervention and connect them to mental health resources. The screening process, called Check Yourself, is a secure web-based survey developed by Seattle Children’s Hospital. The survey asks questions about students’ strengths, substance use, social and emotional health, and safety. The SBIRT is completely voluntary and students can opt out of this survey. 

Who participates in SBIRT?
Our District is one of several districts across King County currently participating in the King County Best Start Kids grant, which provides the funding and support for the SBIRT program.

In the 2022-23 school year, IMS seventh graders and select MIHS classes took the SBIRT Check Yourself screener. Families whose student would be taking the SBIRT screener were notified prior to the survey being administered and had the option to opt out. We will always communicate with families when we undertake programs like or similar to SBIRT.

What does MISD do with the information?
Students are flagged as either red, yellow, or green after completing the Check Yourself screener. Students identified as at risk and in need of support through the Check Yourself screener are contacted and met with by school counselors and/or administrators. 

• Students identified as red are met with as soon as possible by their school counselor and/or an administrator. In many instances, the school team also includes a counselor from Mercer Island Youth and Family Services.
• Students identified as yellow are met with to check-in and determine whether further support is needed.
• Students identified as green do not receive any further supports.

How does MISD protect student identity?
Each student participant is assigned a unique test number. We do not use the student’s name or school identification number as part of the assessment process. Once the Check Yourself screener is finished, only a school administrator or counselor may access the data. These same District staff members are the only parties who have access to the unique test numbers assigned to each student.

The information King County can access is de-identified and is used only to look at regional trends and not student-specific data. The District has a data sharing agreement with King County that contains restrictions on the education records. We take our students' data privacy extremely seriously and this is why we sought the additional data sharing agreement with King County.

Why does MISD participate in SBIRT?
The District is committed to the physical and mental well-being of our students. The SBIRT process and Check Yourself screener provide our school teams with another tool to assess and support students. The 15-minute screener provides immediate access to the results, which gives staff a chance to intervene with students quickly.

If you have any questions about SBIRT or the Check Yourself survey don’t hesitate to get in contact with your student’s school administrator or you can reach out to Superintendent Dr. Fred Rundle.

How Does MISD Communicate with Families About SBIRT?
MISD sends out a letter to all families about the SBIRT prior to distribution of the survey. Here is an example of a recent letter.

Families can also preview survey questions by clicking here. Families need to enter a 6-digit ID (any combo of letters or numbers will work) and select their students' grade to see the correct grade level survey, as there are differences between the middle school and high school survey.

We know families have questions about the SBIRT and King County has provided a document with answers to some commonly asked questions. The King County Department of Community and Human Services blog also has a story about the SBIRT.