California Healthy Kids Survey
History and Purpose
The CalSCHLS system was created by the California Department of Education (CDE) in 1997 to efficiently and cost-effectively provide school districts and their partner communities with quality local data which can be used to improve student academic performance and social-emotional, behavioral, and physical health of all youth. It assesses key indicators linked to success in school, career, and life.
The CalSCHLS system:
- enables similar schools and districts to compare their results;
- provides aggregated county and statewide data to guide policies and programmatic efforts at these broader geographic levels, and serve as norms for comparison to local results; and
- creates a dataset about California youth, schools, and parents in order to improve understanding of the factors affecting successful school and youth outcomes and how they vary across the state.
The Surveys
California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS)
The CHKS is a modular, anonymous assessment recommended for students age 10 (grade 5) and above. It is focused on the five most important areas for guiding school and student improvement:
- student connectedness, learning engagement/motivation, and attendance;
- school climate, culture, and conditions;
- school safety, including violence perpetration and victimization/bullying;
- physical and mental well-being and social-emotional learning; and
- student supports, including resilience-promoting developmental factors (caring relationships, high expectations, and meaningful participation)