Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey

2025 YRBS Information

The 2025 YRBS was administered between January 6 and June 13, 2025. Local reports, including school, district, and county level reports, and statewide reports are currently in development. If you would like to receive notifications about the YRBS, you may subscribe to receive the YRBS email distributions. This webpage will also be updated with current information as soon are reports are released.

The Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is conducted as part of a national effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor health-risk behaviors of the nation's high school students. These behaviors, in turn, result in the most significant causes of both mortality and morbidity during youth and adulthood. The behaviors monitored by the Wisconsin YRBS include mental health, traffic safety, weapons and violence, suicide, tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual behavior, nutrition, and exercise.

For More Information

The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has administered the YRBS every two years since 1993. The YRBS is administered to students in Wisconsin's high schools. Survey procedures were designed to protect the privacy of students by allowing anonymous and voluntary participation. Local parent permission procedures were followed before administration, including informing parents their child's participation was voluntary.

For more information about the YRBS and why it is important, please watch the following video:
Overview of the survey - This CDC resource is currently unavailable. Please check again in the future.

National YRBS

National Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. This web site includes the most recent YRBS questionnaire for surveys of 9th - 12th grade students, published reports, data files and documentation, and Youth Online.

Youth Online: Comprehensive Results.

YRBS Youth Online lets you:

• Examine risk behaviors in six categories: unintentional injuries and violence, tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual behaviors, dietary behaviors, and physical activity;
• Compare results from national, state, territorial, and local surveys;
• Examine trends over time;
• Stratify by race/ethnicity, sex, or grade; and
• View results as tables or graphs.

See the Conducting A YRBS page for information on registering, taking the survey, and getting results.

Note: This page is about Wisconsin statewide statistics only. If you want to conduct your own local survey at the school, district, or county level, please use this page.
 

Stay Informed!

Youth Risk Behavior Survey Email Subscription

Youth Risk Behavior Survey

Resources and Supports

The DPI offers a variety of resources for schools to support their students. Below are some notable resources that relate to topics in the YRBS. Additional resources can be found on the DPI’s Student Services webpage.

• Wisconsin School Mental Health Framework: The framework includes six components of a comprehensive school mental health system (CSMHS) and provides guidance on implementing them from a trauma sensitive lens. A CSMHS includes a continuum of services and supports to promote student and staff mental health by fostering social and emotional well-being and positive school culture and eliminating systemic barriers to well-being and success for all students. A CSMHS increases health equity by ensuring all students and staff have access to the prevention, early intervention, and treatment supports that they need when they need them, free of stigma.
• Trauma Sensitive Schools: By becoming a trauma sensitive school, schools can become a protective factor for students exposed to traumatic events and increase the social and emotional skills, as well as the academic skills, of the entire school body.
• Culturally Responsive, Evidence-Based Practices: School staff and school mental health providers recognize the needs of students from diverse cultural backgrounds and offer programs that reduce disparities in services. These practices are designed to help educators deepen their understanding of the needs of a diverse student body and to use strategies proven to help close achievement gaps.
• College and Career Ready Individualized Education Programs (CCR IEPs): For students with disabilities, an IEP based on the CCR IEP five beliefs of High Expectations, Culturally Responsive Practices, Student Relationships, Family and Community Engagement, and Collective Responsibility is designed to identify and meet student learning needs through appropriate individualized services. The CCR IEPs provide a framework for IEP teams to explore beliefs and attitudes regarding students with disabilities, build knowledge and skills to evaluate and plan special education services, and examine systems and practices that support students, families, and educators.
• Social Emotional Learning (SEL): Provides the essentials for implementing a comprehensive approach to SEL. Making SEL skills part of the learning equation helps children succeed in school and life. With social and emotional skills, children can manage their feelings, build healthy relationships, and navigate social environments.
• Supporting Neurodiverse Students: Provides learning opportunities with a focus on regulation, social communication, flexibility, resilience, sensory processing, and executive functioning.
• Safe Schools: Provides resources and learning opportunities related to bullying prevention, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, responding to sexual violence, child abuse and neglect, school attendance, and more.
• Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse (AODA) Program: Designed to help local school districts utilize their staff and program resources to develop comprehensive AODA programs. The DPI provides assistance to school districts to develop comprehensive AODA programs which encompass both prevention and intervention services.