Get To Know Your School

Gather School Specific Data

Teachers, school support staff, administrators and school board members care deeply about the well-being of their students. While the focus on your work is to reduce teen nicotine use, what schools are held accountable for, and what they have the most resources to address, is students’ academic achievement. 

Learning about your potential school partner as a whole - their attendance and graduation rates, test and teacher satisfaction scores, health and wellness information, courses offered, budget and demographics – will help you identify what your schools’ academic priorities are, their barriers, challenges, and successes, and how your work may intersect with and support achieving their goals.  This data will also help you get a better idea of how feasible your partnership objectives are and what is needed to be successful. 

Tools You Can Use

• Colorado Department of Education School View: Includes school, district, and state-level education data including achievement and growth, student enrollment, demographics, student attendance, student conduct, staff data, course offerings, and health and wellness programs. 

• Unified Improvement Plans: An accountability tool schools must submit annually to CDE.  These plans are a strong indicator of school priorities for the coming year. 

• Colorado Department of Education- Discipline Data: ​Search for the number of tobacco violations and types of disciplinary actions taken in your school district.

• Teaching and Learning Conditions in Colorado Survey: A statewide survey of school‐based, certified educators, education support professionals, and administrators on their perceptions of the teaching and learning conditions in their schools. Items related to behavioral health are included.  

• Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) online dashboard: Administered every other year in public middle and high schools, this anonymous and voluntary survey is the state’s only comprehensive survey on the health and well-being of Colorado's young people. The purpose is to understand youth’s health and what factors support youth to make healthy choices.  

Attend School Meetings and Events

You can learn a lot about your school partners by attending events that schools host throughout the year, such as PTA/parent meetings, sporting events, school plays and concerts, or other extracurricular activities where community attendance is welcome. 

• Gather observational data about the school’s nicotine prevention efforts at events held on school campus. Is nicotine prevention education and policy signage posted throughout? How does the school dispose of nicotine waste? Do they use vape detectors?  

• Reach out to the school’s PTA/parent association to see if there is interest in having nicotine-prevention education offered to parents. You could also attend a meeting to learn what families discuss and prioritize. Be sure to introduce yourself and make yourself available for questions or further discussion. 

If you are unsure of which events are open to the larger community, the school activity coordinator or family/community liaison can help you identify events to coordinate around.  

Connect With School Leadership

Once you understand your school leaders’ priorities, seek their feedback on a potential partnership and how your organization can support existing efforts, especially in ways that reduce barriers and lighten staff workload.  

Approach school leaders as a collaborative partners, not an external advocate, bringing a standalone initiative.  Clearly connect your tobacco-free and health promotion efforts to the school's  academic and operational priorities.  

Align your approach to their goals. For example: 

• If attendance is a priority, introduce Second Chance as an alternative to suspension for nicotine infractions. 

• If family and community engagement is a priority, offer to host a Start the Conversation training, including a light dinner and childcare. 

Reinforce that your goal is to support healthier learning environments that improve student well-being and academic success. Acknowledge the challenges schools face and clearly articulate where your organization can add value. 

Tools You Can Use: 

• STEPP School Partner Letter: This ready-to-use resource can be used to introduce yourself to school staff and includes collaborative strategies that can be shared with potential school partners.

• Guidance for Colorado Schools About Storage and Disposal of Nicotine Waste: Helps schools with storage or disposal of tobacco and/or nicotine products that are collected on school grounds. 

• Vape Detectors- Why are Vape Detectors Not Recommended for Use in Schools?: Explains how vape detectors are not supported by evidence or research to prevent or reduce youth nicotine or tobacco use.