The Utah Student Health and Risk Prevention survey, commonly known as the SHARP survey, is administered every other year. It’s an opportunity for 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th graders statewide to voice their readiness to face issues like tobacco use, underage drinking, school safety, bullying and mental health.
Summit and Wasatch County students will take the survey in early March.
Summit County Health Department Director of Prevention Pamella Bello said it’s the only survey of its kind.
“This survey gives us all the information we need to offer services, but then it also gives our youth a voice,” she said. “I think it's very important that youth understand that this is the way of telling us what they need, instead of having an adult deciding what they need.”
Wasatch Behavioral Health Prevention Coordinator Trudy Brereton [brair-eh-ton] said the survey supports more than just health departments. Nonprofits like the Wasatch Latino Coalition and school districts also use the data to address substance abuse issues and bullying, among other things.
Brereton said while other data is considered, SHARP data is the best.
“It's all from the students' perspective, their perception, which is really great information to have to know what students are thinking,” she said.
Students choose which questions they want to answer on the 35- to 40-minute computer survey.
Parents must give permission for their kids to participate when registering for the school year. Bello said opt-in numbers this year are looking good for Summit County. Around 83% of Park City parents said yes to the survey.
“We have been struggling with participation in this survey for years, and this is the first time we have this amount of parents say yes, and I think that parents are understanding more and more why we need this data,” Bello said.
Brereton said Wasatch County participant numbers are also looking good. After a lull in 2023, numbers are back up and similar to 2021 with over 1,400 parents opting-in.
It’s also not too late for parents to allow their kids to take the survey. Brereton said they just need to contact their child’s school.
Bello said some parents may be worried the survey includes themes too mature for their children. However, she said kids are already familiar with the topics.
“These are not questions that are going to make your kids now know about suicide. Kids know about these things,” Bello said. “Sometimes us as parents don't know what [our] kids really know, but kids know these things. Asking them questions is not going to give them the idea of committing suicide or of starting to use alcohol or drugs.”
Survey results from this year will be released in October.
