Safe Schools/Healthy Students 2005 Report to New Hanover County School Youth Risk Behavior Survey and School Security Assessments 2005 Prepared by the UNCW Evaluation Team August 2005

What is Safe Schools/Healthy Students? Federal partnership School and community partnership University partnership

SSHS 6081 students participated in Second Step Social Skills/Violence Prevention curriculum Including 573 three to five year olds in childcare centers 236 received Anger Management therapy 708 participated in substance abuse prevention classes 722 received conflict resolution training in their schools 351 received alternative to out of school suspension services 91 received mental health therapy in their schools

Youth Risk Behavior Survey

What is the YRBS? Youth risk behavior surveys were conducted by the CDC and UNCW evaluators over a two week period in April of 2005 UNCW evaluators surveyed eight schools not already surveyed by the CDC  5 classrooms in 3 high schools  5 classrooms in 5 middle schools Surveys examined health risk behaviors including violence, tobacco and alcohol use, sexual behavior, drug use, and psychological health

Materials Used YRBS Survey:  Middle School Questionnaire (49 items)  High School Questionnaire (87 items) Scantron forms Directions for questionnaire completion Completely confidential…students put form into envelope

Procedure Classes were randomly selected- five from middle and high schools not selected by the CDC Schools selected times and dates for administration (within a two-week period) Classroom packets were assembled

Procedure Survey Administration  Six Safe Schools/UNCW evaluators administered surveys in assigned classes, and monitored by SSHS staff  Evaluators read standardized directions to each class and monitored completion of the surveys by students  Administration of surveys took approximately one hour

Middle School Results by Category

Violence Related Behavior

Alcohol Use

Other Drug Use

Sexual Behavior

High School Results by Category

Violence Related Behavior

Alcohol Use

Other Drug Use

Sexual Behavior

School Security Assessment

What were the School Security Observations? Authorization procedures All New Hanover County public schools visited twice by two different evaluators Assessed security and school climate

Materials Used Pocket PCs  Hand held computers with Noldus behavioral observation software allowing evaluators to enter times and descriptions of observations

Procedure All evaluators received approximately eleven weeks of training prior to observations All constructs were operationally defined precisely in order for evaluators to become reliable

Procedure Evaluators were instructed to enter schools by the front door and continue walking until stopped and escorted to the office If stopped but not escorted, evaluators continued walking Those not stopped left school grounds without going to the office Time to contact with school personnel, total time in school, and quality of contacts were assessed

School Observations by Level

Elementary School Observations CategoryNot Stopped at all Stopped but not escorted EscortedTotal time spent in school Number of Evaluators Observations Average Length of Time 45 minutes23 minutes9 minutes14 minutes (average)

Middle School Observations CategoryNot Stopped at all Stopped but not escorted EscortedTotal time spent in school Number of Evaluators Observations Average Length of Time 45 minutes11 minutes10 minutes21 minutes (average)

High School Observations CategoryNot Stopped at all Stopped but not escorted EscortedTotal time spent in school Number of Evaluators Observations Average Length of Time 41 minutes15 minutes12 minutes25 minutes (average)

Summary and conclusions New Hanover County students are engaging in violent behavior, sexual activity and drug use in alarming numbers While consistent with North Carolina data the magnitude of the numbers clearly demonstrate the need for early sustained interventions targeting such behavior The health and societal consequences of not addressing these issues are lifelong

The good news The Safe Schools/Healthy students federal grant initiative has programs targeting these specific issues. The challenge is to build and sustain these partnerships.