Iowa will not take part in the Center for Disease Control’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior survey, which asks kids about their drug use, sexual behavior, mental health and other behaviors. Instead, the state will focus on its own Iowa Youth Survey to monitor at-risk behavior.
Child advocates are concerned. Anne Discher, executive director of Common Good Iowa, says the Iowa Youth Survey doesn’t ask questions about students’ gender identity, unlike the CDC’s survey. “It’s really the only one that allows us to see the specific needs of trans kids,” Discher says. “So we’re doing away with the opportunity to really have fine grade data around health and mental health that includes trans kids.”
Discher says it’s important to ask questions about gender identity, given the recent passage of several controversial pieces of legislation by state lawmakers that affect transgender children. “What it looks like to me is, we are going to make life harder for trans kids,” Discher says, “and then conveniently, we’re not going to gather any data that would prove that it actually the things we do make their lives worse.”
Not all states participate in the CDC’s survey. Colorado, Florida and Idaho say they are also opting out of it, starting this year.
(By Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)