The CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health offers state agencies assistance in tracking youth behaviors through the Youth Risk Behavior Survey System.

According to the CDC website, these surveys track behaviors that can lead to poor health in students grades 9 through 12 and are administered every other year.

In March 2022, the state of Alabama was one of the six states that discontinued the biennial youth survey agreement.

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These surveys help track:

• Student demographics: sex, sexual identity, race and ethnicity, and grade
• Youth health behaviors and conditions: sexual, injury and violence, bullying, diet and physical activity, obesity, and mental health, including suicide
• Substance use behaviors: electronic vapor product and tobacco product use, alcohol use, and other drug use
• Student experiences: parental monitoring, school connectedness, unstable housing, and exposure to community violence

Christina Clark Okarmas has worked for the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health since 2011.

Every two years they use the statistics gathered from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to determine what teens in Alabama are lacking.

"It's really important that young people in Alabama have access to sexual health education and one of the ways that we can kind of track whether or not young people are knowing or understanding the things they need to know to protect their sexual health is through this survey," said Okarmus.

Okarmus says they were not given to every high school student in the state, but just enough to gather accurate statistics, and the surveys remained anonymous.

Over the years, this survey has been run by both the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama State Department of Education.

Now that these surveys will no longer be offered in Alabama, it leaves people wondering how the state will continue tracking youth behaviors.

Ryan Easterling, with the Alabama Department of Public Health, said that STD data ADPH collects comes from county clinics.

"Sexually transmitted diseases are notifiable diseases in our state, which means that they must be reported by physicians and other medical staff," said Easterling.

We reached out to the Alabama State Department of Education and have yet to hear back.