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California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS)

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

The California Department of Education's California Healthy Kids Survey, administered statewide with WestEd, is a K–12 survey system that measures student well-being, school conditions, and related behavioral-health outcomes.

Components

  • CHKS Mental Health Supports module and companion School Staff Survey Student Wellness Module: For the comprehensive Project Cal-Well evaluation, UCSF "created a custom Mental Health Supports module for the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS)" to assess changes in students' mental health needs and access to support. In partnership with WestEd the module was expanded with trauma measures and is now part of the CHKS Behavioral Health Modules available to LEAs statewide. UCSF also developed a companion Student Wellness Module of the School Staff Survey to assess staff capacity to support student mental health over time. (Project Cal-Well: Building Sustainable School-Based Mental Health Systems (2024))
  • Cal-SCHLS survey system for assessing student and staff perceptions of school climate: The California School Climate, Health, and Learning Survey (Cal-SCHLS) System, developed by WestEd with funding from the California Department of Education, consists of three comparable surveys: the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) for students, the California School Climate Survey (CSCS) for staff, and the California School Parent Survey. Survey items "gauged respondents’ perceptions of their school environment (e.g., supportiveness, safety), as well as students’ grades, truancy, and risk behaviors." During the analysis years the CHKS was administered in approximately 840 school districts to an average of 500,000 students per year in grades 7, 9, and 11. (Voight (2013))
  • California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) as a disaggregatable school-climate and well-being assessment: The CHKS is an anonymous, modular student assessment developed by WestEd for the California Department of Education, administered voluntarily by districts, "usually at least every other year." It collects demographic items (race, Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, Asian group identity, gender identity, sexual orientation) and 14 perception measures across five domains: school supports, school safety, mental health, school engagement, and academic performance. This report pools 2017–19 responses from 559,120 students in grades 9 and 11 and disaggregates them intersectionally. (Cerna et al. (2021))
  • California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) as a school-climate measurement instrument: The CHKS core module is described as "a 115-item student survey that is primarily designed to measure school climate." A factor analytic study identified eight latent constructs, which load onto two domains: supports and engagement, and low violence, victimization, and substance use. These domains combine with a reverse-coded truancy indicator to form the School Climate Index used as the study's climate outcome. (Voight et al. (2013))

Claims

Key Sources

  • Project Cal-Well: Building Sustainable School-Based Mental Health Systems. (2024). WestEd. https://wested.org
  • Voight, A. (2013). The Racial School-Climate Gap. A report from the Region IX Equity Assistance Center at WestEd. San Francisco: WestEd. http://cal-schls.wested.org
  • Hanson, T., Zhang, G., Cerna, R., Stern, A., & Austin, G. (2019). Understanding the experiences of LGBTQ students in California. San Francisco, CA: WestEd. https://www.wested.org
  • Cerna, R., Stern, A., Austin, G., Betz, J., Zhang, G., & Hashmi, S. (2021). Understanding the experiences of LGBTQ high school students in California by race/ethnicity. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/resources/lgbtq-students-in-california/
  • Voight, A., Austin, G., and Hanson, T. (2013). A climate for academic success: How school climate distinguishes schools that are beating the achievement odds (Full Report). San Francisco: WestEd. https://www.WestEd.org/
Page metadata
Field Value
type product
id california-healthy-kids-survey-chks
title California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS)
description The California Department of Education's California Healthy Kids Survey, administered statewide with WestEd, is a K–12 survey system that measures student well-being, school conditions, and related behavioral-health outcomes.
status review
product_kind assessment
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-09
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