Students at Thomas Blake Middle School, which is part of Medfield Public Schools in Massachusetts, will be administered a survey asking about a variety of topics, including violence, bullying, drug and alcohol use, mental health, physical activity, digital media use, stress and anxiety.

In an October 2025 letter to the parents and guardians of the school’s students, the principal provided a copy of the “MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey,” which she explained would be given to all students unless parents opted their child out before the Nov. 5 deadline.

“Our goal is to improve student health and safety, and this survey—administered in MetroWest region schools since 2006—provides our school district with valuable information to help strengthen educational programming and services,” the principal said of the survey.

The letter also asked parents to “not share the survey with anyone else” as “Widespread discussion of the survey in advance could influence how students respond.” But, she said they “encourage parents to discuss the survey topics with their children in general, but not the specific survey questions.”

The survey will be administered to 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

Questions asked included:

“What sex were you assigned at birth, on your birth certificate?”

“Which of the following best describes your gender?” With options including: “non-binary, gender-queer, gender-fluid, gender non-conforming.”

Explained transgender as “when [a person thinks] their sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about their gender,” then asks: “Are you transgender?”

One question also asks about their sexual identity.

The survey asked about suicidal feelings, including whether students had “ever made a plan about how you would attempt suicide?”

One part of the survey asked students about climate change and whether they “worry or feel stressed about climate change?” think they “are personally being affected by climate change?” and if they have “taken any actions to help reduce the effects of climate change?”

The MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey is funded by the MetroWest Health Foundation in Framingham, MA and the Education Development Center, a nonprofit organization in Waltham, MA, is funded by the MetroWest Health Foundation to implement the MWAHS, according to a fact sheet given to parents. Many questions are drawn from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey “gathers timely and important data on the health and risk behaviors of students in the middle and high school grades, with a goal of informing data-driven efforts to keep students healthy and safe,” according to the fact sheet .

Notably, the fact sheet claims that students are not asked to provide any identifying information and that there is no way to link a student’s responses with their identity.