The Warwick School Committee will get an update on the Rhode Island Student Survey (RISS), a roughly 35-minute long  “anonymous online student survey” that pertains to “adolescent substance use and misuse in middle and high schools” when it meets on Tuesday.

At the January meeting, School Committee member Karen Bachus explained that the survey is critical for the district’s planning. For instance, she said that it is a necessary figure in determining how many substance abuse counselors should be present at middle and high schools.

“It's important for Warwick,” Bachus added. “It’s important for all districts in the state.”

While the School Committee and Warwick Public Schools first received a request for administration of the RISS in November 2023 at the advice of the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, & Hospitals (BHDDH), action was postponed. It was not an agenda item for the December meeting, it was tabled in January and it was not on the February agenda.

In January, some school committee members expressed concern with rushing the process, especially given the sensitive content within the survey. School Committee Member Leah Hazelwood explained she “would want parents to have the opportunity to speak to their children before the survey goes out.” Some were concerned about the nature of the content. Bachus reminded the committee members that the survey is optional such that parents can opt in or out, and students can turn in incomplete surveys.

A routine matter?

School committee member David Testa pushed back against the need to slow the process down, arguing that this isn’t the first time they have done a survey like this, and the administration was planning on alerting parents about the content of the survey before administering it to students anyways.

“This should just be a routine thing,” he added.

He also pointed to the section of the letter that explained that Warwick was selected “due to services your students receive because of state or local Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success grants, the Regional Prevention Task Forces or Rhode Island Student Assistance Services.”

“It’s simple here,” Testa said. “You take the money, you take the survey.”

Shaun Galligan, Chairman of the Warwick School Committee, anticipates that the discussion in March could set necessary policy changes in motion to see the survey through. Depending on how the conversation goes, the next step would be for the committee to revise its internal policy such that taking action regarding this survey would no longer be a violation.

“We fix the policy, then we vote on the policy, then we administer the survey, and then we’re done,” Galligan explained.

According to the letter sent to the Warwick Public Schools by the BHDDH in November, the RISS is supposed to be administered between January and May 2024.

Galligan estimates that “if we don’t make a big ordeal of it,” the survey could still be feasibly administered by the end of the school year. He explained that policy adjustment would be heard at the next policy sub-committee meeting and could be approved in a second hearing in April. If that moves forward, he added, they could distribute the survey between April, May and June.

Galligan said there were a variety of reasons why this process has been drawn out. The district’s typical protocol when administering surveys is to provide information to parents in September. Because the RISS came to the School Committee’s attention in November, there was some concern that they did not have the same time to alert the parents. Galligan believed that violating that precedent was not an option.

“I am unsure why any member of this committee would progress this survey forward if it meant we would violate a School Committee policy,” he said.

Legality of survey questioned

His second concern was the legality of the survey itself. Galligan said that originally there was a “gray area” regarding the voluntary nature of the survey, but after hearing from legal counsel, they were able to ensure that the survey does not infringe upon student rights.

“If we adjust the language within our policy and develop a robust distribution plan so that parents are aware of this survey and its content, it is legal for us to administer this policy without recognizing opt-in/opt-out requirements covered under Federal or State legislation,” Galligan added.

Galligan also questioned the necessity of this particular survey. He explained that the school district already administers three or four surveys a year, and he argued that the results from the RISS are “more beneficial to the state of Rhode Island and the programs that are funded by the state, not to the Warwick Public School District.”

He added that after reaching out to the Prevention Unit at BHDDH, he said that “the only caveat that could be considered negative” is that districts that participated with the survey would likely be prioritized higher when it comes to receiving grants.

Other stakeholders were concerned about the debate over the RISS. Parent Jeremy Langelle was disappointed that the survey has been tabled so many times. He said that they should trust the experts and institutions that “have already done the work” adding that “being a parent doesn’t make me an expert in it.”