Colorado schools are not required to obtain written parental consent before students take part in an every-other-year health and behavior survey, according to .
The opinion — the latest development in a squabble over the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey — caused the state Board of Education to hold off yet again on voting on changing the way the survey is given.
Republican board member Pam Mazanec has led a charge to require so-called “active consent,” arguing parents are not fully informed of what she called inappropriate and exploitative questions.
The board put off the issue until next month after hearing from a long line of health and school district officials, youth advocates and others who said the change would .
The AG opinion said that if given properly, the survey is voluntary and not “required.” As a result, the survey does not fall under a state law that requires parental permission for survey participation, it said.
School districts are chosen at random for a chance to participate in Healthy Kids, which quizzes middle- and high-school students on eating habits, smoking, drinking, drugs, bullying and more.
Districts and schools can decline to take part, and parents are notified and can opt their children out. Students may skip the survey and instead work quietly at their desks, the opinion noted.
In the past, schools were told to give parents at least three days’ notice before the survey, the opinion said. That is changing this fall, with schools being required to give at least two weeks’ notice.
The state Department of Public Health and Environment .
In 2013, 40,000 students at more than 220 schools took part in the survey.
