New Fairfax County Public Schools figures show ongoing declines in the percentages of students using alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and harder drugs.
But the results have led some to ask if they’re too good to be true.
“That’s remarkable. It’s almost too remarkable,” School Board member Kyle McDaniel (at-large) said during discussion of the most recent Fairfax County Youth Survey at the school board meeting last Thursday (Oct. 24).
“Does that pass the ‘sniff test’?” he asked Superintendent Michelle Reid of significant declines in alcohol and marijuana use.
“It’s a great question,” Reid replied. “I don’t know.”
The annual survey is conducted voluntarily and anonymously among students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades each fall. Released by Fairfax County in September, the update for the 2023-24 school year reported that:
- 88% of respondents at the four grade levels reported no alcohol/tobacco/illicit drug use at all in the 30 days before completing the survey
- 93% reported no alcohol use
- 95% reported no drug use
The figures are the best for FCPS since 2010. School officials are trying to discern what the data might say about how local students are handling the pandemic-disrupted, roller-coaster experience of the last five years.
The county’s youth survey for the 2021-2022 school year — when all students returned to in-person classes — found increased reports of depression, bullying and suicidal thoughts.
Based on the new survey results, both Reid and FCPS Chief Academic Officer Sloan Presidio suggested today’s youth lead different lives than those who came before them, for a variety of reasons.
“Our young people are not driving as much, they are not necessarily dating as much, they’re not working [outside the home],” Reid said. “In some ways, they’re not gathering as much.”
“They’ve become more socially isolated, staying at home and on their cellphones and computers,” Presidio added.
Circling back on the question of whether the data accurately reflects the reality of local students’ behavior, Presidio joined Reid in having no definitive answer.
“I hope so, but I’m also not naive,” he said. “This is self-reported data; we have to again always keep that in mind when we are looking at it.”
While single-year statistics aren’t guaranteed to be accurate, “trends overall are reliable,” Presidio told the school board. Part of the reason for the improving trend line are the efforts by the school system and its staff, he said.
“We’re doing a lot to educate our students about the dangers of substance abuse, and I do think that that is making a difference,” Presidio said.
Report finds problematic trends for sixth-grade students
While the Fairfax County Youth Survey showed positive trends for students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades in areas from mental health to bullying, the news was more troubling among sixth graders.
More than a quarter of sixth graders who responded to the survey reported being bullied on school grounds — an increase for the third year in a row and the highest rate since pre-pandemic days. By comparison, only about 10% of students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades reported being bullied.
In addition, 5.9% for sixth grade students reported bullying others compared to 3.6% for those in higher grades.
At-Large School Board Member Seema Dixit voiced concerns that “everything is going in a negative direction for” for sixth graders. She suggested considering moving sixth graders from elementary to middle schools, where there are more resources to address the needs of those entering adolescence.
For years, neighboring Arlington has grouped kindergarten through fifth grade in elementary school, sixth through eighth grades in middle school and ninth through 12th grades in high school.
Going that route could prove be a seismic change and logistical challenge in Fairfax County, but Reid told the school board that it’s a scenario “we’re going to take a look at.”
One key question was how to make it work from a facilities standpoint, with school building capacity and boundaries already under review.
“Would we have room to move our sixth graders to middle school?” Reid mused at the Oct. 24 meeting.
“Either way, this behavior needs to be addressed,” she said of the bullying and other concerns raised in the report. “We have to turn that trend.”
FCPS has been administering the youth survey to secondary-school students since 2001, adding the sixth-grade component in 2008. The 2024-25 survey will be administered in mid-November. Parents have until Nov. 8 to opt students out of participation.
