Background

The first survey of Illinois youth by the state regarding substance use was conducted in 1990 by the Illinois Dept. of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (DASA). A weighted scientific sample of schools was surveyed, using the "I-SAY" commercial instrument from the NCS company in Iowa. DASA did not have the internal resources to repeat the survey, but found the results to be very important for planning substance abuse prevention initiatives. So, they contracted with Lighthouse Institute of Chestnut Health Systems to continue administering the survey.

In 1993, 1995, and 1997 Lighthouse Institute repeated the survey, again using a sample of schools and the I-SAY instrument. Each time, a report of the statewide results was completed for DASA and distributed by that state agency. These statewide reports do not divulge the identity of participating schools, and report results of the state as a whole, rather than district by district.  Each district received their own results, and these were not divulged to any other entity.

In 1998, some changes were made by the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS), which was created by the merger of DASA with other state human service departments. Lighthouse Institute was asked by the state to change the time frame (from odd years to even years) and survey instrument. The latter change was needed both because the I-SAY device was no longer available and because Illinois became one of seven states participating in a study led by the University of Washington that included multi-year measurement of both substance use and the specific risk and protective factors found in research to be associated with youth substance use. As a result, the instrument used in 1998, 2000, and 2002 was mostly developed by the University of Washington, with the exception of a few questions added to maintain continuity of our survey project in Illinois.