State health and South Whidbey School District officials want to know the habits and behaviors of South Whidbey school students — the ones they can’t see at school.

This week, middle and high students are taking a multiple choice survey with questions about their schools, their community and their health habits.

The voluntary and anonymous Healthy Youth Survey will be administered during school hours. Answers to questions about friends and neighbors, eating and exercise habits, and knowledge and attitudes about the use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, safety and violence will reveal patterns of behavior in the district.

“These are not just school issues, these are community issues,” said Diane Watson, director of special services for the South Whidbey School district. “I am a big fan of this survey because it is our responsibility to measure our successes and evaluate what programs work, and identify areas that need to be addressed.”

Watson said the test allows the district to track the same students through sixth, eighth and 10th grades.

The numbers of students participating in the survey is on the increase from just a few hundred in 1998 to more than 700 this year, Watson said.

Results from the study will be released next spring.

The state Superintendent of Public Instruction uses the information from the survey to assess students’ risk factors and health behaviors.

Statewide information is used to develop programs to support children in schools and communities.

A notice about the survey was sent home with students giving parents the option to decide if they want their child to participate.

More than 100,000 Washington students took the survey in 2000. It is sponsored by the state Department of Health, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Department of Social and Health Services Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse.