San Diego Unified School District

California School Climate, Social-Emotional & Mental Health, and Learning Supports & Engagement Survey System

The CalSCHLS system was created by the California Department of Education (CDE) in 1997 to efficiently and cost-effectively provide school districts and their partner communities with quality local data which can be used to improve student academic performance and social-emotional, behavioral, and physical health of all youth. It assesses key indicators linked to success in school, career, and life. The majority of districts in California now use CalSCHLS data as Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) indicators.

There are three surveys that are used in SDUSD:

All three surveys were developed by WestEd with the help of Duerr Evaluation Resources and expert advisory committees of educators, researchers, and practitioners. The staff and parent surveys were added to address the needs of districts for data on school working conditions, and parent/guardian involvement, and to enable the comparison of staff and parent/guardian perspectives to student self-reports. 

The CalSCHLS system:

• enables similar schools and districts to compare their results;
• provides aggregated county and statewide data to guide policies and programmatic efforts at these broader geographic levels, and serve as norms for comparison to local results; and
• creates a dataset about California youth, schools, and parents in order to improve understanding of the factors affecting successful school and youth outcomes and how they vary across the state.

California Department of Education Whole Child Resources: Whole Child resources that support schools in creating an environment where all students are safe, engaged, supported, challenged, and healthy.

SDUSD Cal-SCHLS

The CAL-SCHLS System of surveys window in San Diego Unified is open from February 1, 2023, through March 24, 2023. Please refer to circular #84 for more detailed information regarding District implementation. Site coordinator training will be offered prior to the survey window opening. 

California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) Content

The survey gathers information on developmental supports provided to youth; school connectedness and barriers to learning, as well as behaviors such as physical activity and nutritional habits; alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use; and school safety. Parents wishing to view survey content may examine the questionnaire in the school office or by visiting https://calschls.org/survey-administration/downloads/#main. San Diego Unified School District administers the CHKS annually to all 5th, (4th graders in the Point Loma Cluster)  7th, 9th, and 11th graders. 

The following modules will be administered during the 2022 - 2023 school year:

Participation in the survey is voluntary with 4th and 5th graders requiring active parent consent (English/Somali/Spanish/Tagalog/ Vietnamese) while 7th, 9th, and 11th graders have passive consent unless parents select the Opt-Out option on their students' registration form.

Survey Results

To access the San Diego Unified Cal-SCHLS Survey Results, please visit CalSCHLS Public Dashboards. For questions or further information related to the Cal-SCHLS survey results and/or annual implementation, please contact the Counseling and Guidance Dept (619) 725-7330 or email [email protected]