Fewer Rhode Island students report drinking, smoking and vaping in new survey

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

Rhode Island’s middle and high school students reported they’re drinking, smoking, getting bullied and considering suicide less often than they did two years ago, according to the latest edition of a statewide student survey released Wednesday.

The 2026 Rhode Island Student Survey was taken by 16,555 students in 24 school districts. The biennial survey is managed by the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, which collaborates with other state health and education officials, as well as the University of Rhode Island, to ask students about their substance use, mental health, bullying and other behaviors.

Compared to the 2024 edition of the survey, this year’s survey found declines in several risky behaviors and improvements in students’ reports of mental health and wellbeing.

High schoolers who reported having ever consumed alcohol, for instance, dropped from 25% in 2024 to 20% this year.

A similar drop was seen in high school students’ reports of having ever smoked or vaped marijuana, which fell from 18% to 14%, while lifetime use of marijuana edibles fell from 11% to 8%.

Reported lifetime vaping was also down, from 15% to 13%.

The 2024 increase in past-month reported use of marijuana among middle school students also reversed this year, with 6.4% reporting smoking or vaping cannabis in the previous 30 days. That’s down from 7.8% in 2024, but still above the 5.4% documented in 2022.

Cannabis use is rising among R.I. middle schoolers; high school alcohol use is down, survey finds

Cyberbullying saw some of the most significant improvements. Middle schoolers who reported having embarrassing or hurtful pictures or messages posted about them online within the previous three months dropped from 18% in 2024 to 12% this year. The figure fell from 14% to 10% among high school students.

Fewer students also reported cyberbullying others. Among both middle and high school students, 7% reported posting material online that could embarrass or hurt another student, down from 13% and 10%, respectively, in 2024.

Even students who admitted to making fun of people saw a decline among both middle and high schoolers, with the former dropping from 40% in 2024 to 29% this year — the lowest since at least 2018.

Fewer students reported feeling sad or hopeless, or having thoughts of suicide. Among middle school students, those who reported seriously considering suicide within the previous 12 months fell from 14% in 2024 to 11% this year. Among high school students, that figure dropped from 11% to 8%.

But roughly a third of students still deal with mental health challenges, with the survey finding that approximately 29% of middle school students and 34% of high school students reported struggling with their mental health over the previous year. Of those students who struggled, only about a third reported speaking or visiting with a school counselor.

“These are positive trends, precisely the kinds of trends we want to see — improved indicators of student wellbeing, fewer students engaging in risky and harmful behaviors, and greater student awareness of the dangers,” Richard Leclerc, BHDDH director, said in a statement Wednesday.

Leclerc credited prevention efforts with the improved numbers. The survey found that high school students generally perceived substances licit and illicit as less accessible than in 2024.

For instance, only 40% of students believed marijuana would be easy to obtain, compared with 48% in 2024. Still, students reported that the most common way they obtained marijuana was from peers.

The approximately 30-minute, online survey is offered in English and Spanish. Each grade at a school needs to have at least 60% of their students complete the survey for that school’s data to be included in the results.

The survey reached fewer students than the 2024 edition, in which more than 23,000 students across 29 districts participated. Five school districts did not participate in 2026: Block Island, Burrillville, Foster-Glocester, North Smithfield and Smithfield.