California Healthy Kids Survey
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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).
To participate in this state-subsidized survey, CDE minimally requires that districts administer a Core Module of key questions in grades 7 and 9 in order to ensure comparable data across all schools. Detailed demographic data are collected from secondary-school students to help determine the characteristics and representativeness of the sample and identify the needs of vulnerable subgroups.
For districts that survey annually, a shorter Mini-Core Module is available for alternate years.
Supplementary modules cover a wide variety of areas in more detail, including:
- school climate;
- social-emotional and physical health;
- substance use; and
- other risk behaviors.
It is recommended that the supplementary School Climate Module be administered along with the Core Module for a truly comprehensive assessment of school climate and pupil engagement, particularly to guide Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) efforts. Read more about the content of the individual modules.