Several school districts in Butler County are participating in a statewide survey this fall to gather information about substance abuse and other issues affecting young people.

The Pennsylvania Youth Survey, or PAYS, has been conducted every other year statewide since 1989 by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

The survey is intended for students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12 and is intended to gauge behavior, attitudes and knowledge concerning alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and violence.

The Karns City School District participated in 2013 and 2015 and will participate again this year. Moniteau High School is participating this year, and the Slippery Rock School District is having its students in grades eight and 10 participate. Butler School District officials were looking into the possibility of participating after hearing interest from school board members at its meeting Monday. The Freeport and Allegheny-Clarion district also have participated in recent years.

Participation by students is voluntary and their parents also can opt out. Most districts distribute passive parental consent forms notifying families about the ability to opt out of having their child participate, according to the crime and delinquency commission's website.

The questions relate to alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; violent behaviors; other health risk behaviors; and related risk and protective factors.

Student responses are confidential and the surveys are used to gather data for state, county and local officials.

Patricia Kardambikis, Slippery Rock assistant superintendent, said in an email that the survey will help district officials identify and address areas of concern.

“PAYS can assure that programs and interventions in health, wellness and social emotional learning supports align to data-identified needs,” she said.

Resources could include student assistance teams, counseling services, health classes and building specific anti-bullying programs, she said.

Eric Ritzert, Karns City superintendent, said the district has found PAYS to be a useful tool.

“We honestly felt like we needed data from students to make informed decisions to combat problems in our community,” he said.

The survey raised red flags in particular about underage alcohol and tobacco use, he said.

Using the data from PAYS as a starting point, the district was able to get a state grant and in 2015 form Karns City Communities That Care, which received its 501(c) (3) nonprofit status earlier this year, executive director Jeff Hogan said.

Communities that Care is a national substance abuse prevention program with hundreds of individual chapters. The Karns City group has a board of directors including representation from the school district and from other community members.

The survey identified 28 different risk factors for children in the district, but the group is keeping its focus narrow.

“If you tried to focus on everything, you end up focusing on nothing,” Hogan said.

The Karns City group is working to implement programs to address two of the risk factors: “low commitment to school” and “attitude favorable toward drug use,” Hogan said. The group is also working to increase one of the protective factors identified by the survey: “rewards for prosocial involvement in the community domain.”

One program starting soon is called Strengthening Families, which is for children ages 10 to 14 and their parents. The program includes seven, two-hour sessions that are designed to promote family bonding and has had great success in improving outcomes with underage drinking, Hogan said.

They group is also raising money and planning to implement Positive Action, an elementary school program involving 15-minute lessons that don't directly address substance abuse, but are designed to teach students that “you feel good about yourself when you do positive actions,” according to the program's website.

Karns City Communities that Care is also working with an East Brady ministerium to restore an after-school program for Sugarcreek Elementary School students and is working with the Butler County Drug and Alcohol program to start a new program for seventh grade students, Hogan said.

More information about that group is available at www.karnscityctc.com.

The Butler School Board had a substance abuse committee, which was recently renamed the substance abuse task force.

The task force will be looking at the possibility of instituting drug testing for extra-curricular activity participants and evaluating some of its substance abuse prevention programming in the schools.

“We'd like to raise the stakes a little bit on this issue,” Butler superintendent Brian White said during the board's education committee meeting Monday.