Idaho has a youth behavioral health crisis, and now schools and districts have a vital tool to help them better serve students and families — the Idaho Youth Well-Being Assessment.

The Idaho Youth Well-being Assessment was created for sixth- to 12^th-grade students to help schools and districts find out what issues are causing depression, anxiety and other mental health symptoms among students. The assessment was created by Idahoans for use in Idaho schools and has been approved by the Idaho Department of Education (IDOE).

The Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health agreed to fund the assessment for the 2024-25 school year because of the urgency of giving Idaho schools and districts an approved tool to help improve their students’ mental health. Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield has stated she plans to submit the assessment as a part of her department’s annual budget moving forward.

How did the Idaho Youth Well-Being Assessment come to fruition?

Data is an important tool in understanding and fighting the behavioral health crisis. Idaho schools and districts currently don’t have an effective way of finding out what issues are causing students to struggle. The Idaho State Legislature opted out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) in 2022, leaving districts to identify these critical issues with limited resources and little to no expertise.

This lack of current data was deeply concerning to Superintendent Critchfield. She formed a workgroup soon after taking office in 2023 to explore solutions to address Idaho’s youth behavioral health crisis.

Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation Senior Program Officer Jackie Yarbrough was invited to join the workgroup, and she introduced Dr. Megan Smith and Communities for Youth to the group because of a successful behavioral health survey collaboration with a rural school district. Communities for Youth is an organization that works with schools and communities to promote mental health wellness.

This ultimately led to the creation of the Idaho Youth Well-being Assessment, which was made available at no cost to all Idaho public schools and charter schools in the fall of 2024. The assessment is designed for sixth through 12^th-grade students whose parents have opted in for their youth to participate, a requirement under Idaho law. Several districts are working through the process to adopt and complete the assessment, while others are seeking more information about it.

How does a district get started? The implementation process often looks like this:

• The school board can review and discuss the Idaho Youth Well-being Assessment at a board meeting. The full assessment can be viewed at https://www.sde.idaho.gov/student-engagement/iywa/files/Youth-Well-being-Assessment-Questions.pdf
• After review and discussion, the board provides approval to conduct the assessment, which is free.
• The district or school contacts parents/guardians and asks for permission for their children to participate in the assessment.
• The approved students take the assessment during school hours like any other standardized test, except individual answers are anonymous as no student-identifying data is collected.
• The results are analyzed by Dr. Smith and the Communities for Youth team and shared with school leadership. The value of current data provides Idaho schools and districts the most accurate information possible to make data-driven decisions that identify the best behavioral health solutions for students, families, and the community.
• The analysis of the data can help determine if the current behavioral health interventions are effective or if a change in approach is recommended.

To learn more, visit the Idaho Department of Education website and the Communities for Youth website.