California Healthy Kids Survey

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.