The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) conducts biennial student surveys of public middle and high school youth for each county and statewide, with active support from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE).
The Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Survey/Youth Tobacco Survey (YRBS/YTS) uses the Center for Disease Contol and Prevention (CDC) State Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) as its core, supplemented by questions from the CDC's State Youth Tobacco Survey (YTS) including specific state-added questions. The CDC recognizes Maryland's YRBS/YTS as an officially sanctioned CDC YRBS. The YRBS/YTS asministraton began early in the Spring 2013 semester and thereafter has been administered in the fall of even calendar years - e.g., Fall 2019. Fall 2021 (due to COVID), Fall 2022 with the upcoming survey to be admnistered in Fall 2024. The data analysis is performed by the CDC and the survey contractor, WESTAT, with the delivery of data sets to Maryland anticipated in the October to December timeframe of the YRBS/YTS since the inception of the survey administration. Maryland mandates biennieal surveillance of youth risk behaviors (Md. Health General Code Ann. §13–1003, §13–1004, and Md. Education Article §7–420). All public middle schools and high schools in
Maryland selected to participate in the biennial Maryland YRBS/YTS are mandated by statute to do so; however, parents may opt their child out of the survey by signing and returning the parental opt-out form, and students can refuse to take the survey at any time. The School Health Profiles (Profiles) survey is administered in the even years. The Profiles data will be reviewed and analyzed to identify specific trends in school health and health education across the state.
