Results from a new survey show Issaquah School District students aren’t very different from students around the state when it comes to using alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and other behavior.
At a March 25 study session, district officials shared results of the 2014 Healthy Youth Survey with Issaquah School Board members.
The survey, which took place in October, was given to students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12. There were about 205,000 participants in 225 districts statewide. In Issaquah, about 4,400 students took part, with participation rates varying from 90 percent of sixth-graders to 59 percent of high-school seniors.
Although Issaquah students were “statistically different” in many areas, their answers on the 100-question survey didn’t differ widely from their peers in other districts.
“Our kids are pretty much like everyone else’s kids — Issaquah has the same strengths, same weaknesses as other kids across the state,” said Dennis Wright, the district’s director of career and counseling services.
The school board reviewed results of 35 questions during the study session. Full results are expected to be posted on the district’s website, www.issaquah.wednet.edu, in the next few weeks.
The survey has a margin of error of 3.3 percent in Issaquah, and the results have a confidence interval of 95 percent, meaning they’re reliable 95 percent of the time among students who took the survey.
One area in which Issaquah students differ significantly from their peers is lifetime alcohol usage. When asked if they’d ever had more than a sip of alcohol, all four grade levels answered “yes” at lower rates than the 2012 survey.
High-school seniors answered “yes” at a 65 percent clip — a drop of 5 percent from two years ago — and all four grade levels were below the state average for lifetime alcohol usage.
Current alcohol usage rates — students who consumed at least one full-sized drink in the past 30 days — also dropped when compared to 2012. Thirty-eight percent of Issaquah’s 12th-graders answered “yes” to the question, a drop of 5 percent, but still above the state average of 33 percent.
Binge drinking — five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks — went down slightly among sixth- and eighth-graders. It went down 7 percent among 12th-graders, although 21 percent of seniors — about one in five — said they had binged. That’s a 12 percent rise over binge-drinking rates among sophomores.
“Sometime between 10th and 12th grades, they’re getting a lot more freedom … and they’re experimenting a lot more,” board member Marnie Maraldo said.
Marijuana usage dropped among all four grades, a statistically curious fact considering the state’s legalization of the drug in 2012, which could be making it more readily available.
Just as they did with alcohol, 12th-graders reported significantly heavier marijuana usage than 10th-graders. Nearly one in four seniors said they had used the drug in the past 30 days, compared to 12 percent of 10th-graders.
Use of other illegal drugs remained relatively stable to 2012 rates, with 6 percent of seniors and 4 percent of sophomores answering “yes” to recent usage.
Drug and alcohol usage at school is a problem, officials believe. Nine percent of sophomores, and 10 percent of seniors, reported being drunk or high at school in the past year.
“One in 10 kids being drunk or high at school isn’t warm and fuzzy,” board member Suzanne Weaver said.
Cigarette smoking rates didn’t change in grades six, eight and 10. There was a 3 percent drop in grade 12, where 10 percent of seniors said they had smoked in the past 30 days.
The survey addressed several other health and safety factors, such as bullying, fighting, sleep patterns and sexual activity.
District officials want to use the survey data in school improvement plans, and in partnerships with groups like the Issaquah Schools Foundation and Issaquah Drug Free Community Coalition.
“What we’re doing is very valuable, but we need to do more,” board President Anne Moore said.