Here are some of the best questions for a high school senior student survey about school safety and bullying, plus tips to help you create them. We use Specific to build these surveys in seconds—just generate your survey with a prompt and start collecting quality feedback.
Best open-ended questions for high school seniors on school safety and bullying
Open-ended questions are a game-changer when we want honest, expressive feedback. They let students share what really matters to them in their own words—crucial when tackling complex issues like safety and bullying.
Use open-ended questions to understand real experiences, nuanced feelings, and stories that multiple-choice can’t capture. Here are 10 effective open-ended questions for this survey audience:
Can you describe a time when you felt unsafe at school? What happened?
How do you think bullying most often shows up at our school?
If you’ve seen or experienced bullying, how did it make you feel?
What would make you feel safer at school?
How do teachers and staff usually respond when they see bullying or conflicts?
What are some ways students can look out for each other to prevent bullying?
If you’ve ever reported bullying, what was that experience like?
What do you wish adults at school understood better about bullying?
Are there any places on campus where you feel less safe? Why?
How would you change our school’s approach to safety and bullying, if you could?
Open-ended responses reveal more than numbers ever could, especially since 71.5% of students have experienced school bullying at some level [1]. These stories provide the depth you need for real change.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school seniors (with examples)
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you need to quickly quantify experiences or jump-start a conversation. For many teens, choosing from a few short options feels less intimidating than typing a long answer, helping you boost response rate and get quick insights before asking any follow-ups.
Question: In the past year, how often have you personally witnessed bullying at school?
Never
Once or twice
Monthly
Weekly or more
Question: How safe do you feel at school during the day?
Very safe
Somewhat safe
Neutral
Somewhat unsafe
Very unsafe
Question: If you experienced bullying, which group(s) were most supportive?
Friends
Teachers
School counselors
Family
Other
When to follow up with "why?" After someone selects an answer, always consider asking "why?" or "Can you share more about your choice?"—especially when the response is surprising, ambiguous, or particularly negative. For example, if a student selects "Very unsafe," following up with "Why do you feel this way? Can you describe a specific incident?" can offer context numbers can’t.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Don’t forget that "Other" with a free-text box can unlock completely unexpected insights, especially when categories don’t cover the respondent’s real experience. If someone chooses "Other," prompt them with "Please tell us more"—you may discover new trends you didn’t even think to ask about.
NPS-style survey question: does it make sense?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t only for customer satisfaction—it works well in student surveys when adapted. The classic NPS question (“On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend…”) lets you measure trust and overall school safety vibe in a single number, then follow up for the why. Try something like:
“On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend your school to others based on how safe you feel here?”
This question not only produces a quantifiable metric for leadership but also encourages quick follow-up on why seniors feel this way. You can generate an NPS-based survey template for school safety in seconds here.
The power of follow-up questions
To collect the richest possible feedback, don’t stop at the first response. Automated follow-up questions—like those used in Specific’s AI surveys—get you the depth and clarity that a one-liner just can’t. The AI automatically asks smart, clarifying questions based on the student’s actual reply and context, in real time, just like an expert interviewer. This conversational approach turns surveys into genuine conversations and gives you answers with real context—no lengthy email chases or classroom interruptions needed.
High school senior: “I see bullying in the halls sometimes.”
AI follow-up: “Can you describe what kind of bullying you’ve seen, and if staff stepped in to help?”
How many followups to ask? In our experience, two or three targeted follow-ups are usually plenty for any topic—enough to unpack the details but not overwhelm. The best tools (like Specific) let you control this setting, and skip to the next question once you get what you need.
This makes it a conversational survey: Each back-and-forth builds a real dialogue, not just a form. Respondents open up more, and your data becomes much richer.
AI survey response analysis and easy reporting: Even with all this unstructured text, analyzing responses is a breeze thanks to AI-powered tools like Specific’s response analysis. You can chat with your data, summarize trends, and spot what matters most—without endless manual work.
Automated follow-up questions are still new. Try building your own survey with follow-ups to see how much more you can learn with less effort.
How to prompt ChatGPT to create the best questions for this survey
Let’s face it—AI is most helpful when you give it clear, specific prompts. For your high school senior survey on school safety and bullying, try this simple request to get started:
Ask ChatGPT:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for high school senior student survey about school safety and bullying.
This works, but context always makes AI smarter. Tell it about your students, your goals, and what kind of insights you want. Here’s a stronger, context-rich prompt:
I’m designing a survey for high school senior students to understand their experiences and feelings about school safety and bullying. I want to learn about what makes them feel unsafe, where issues happen most, who helps, and what changes they’d value. Suggest 10 open-ended questions, focusing on real experiences and practical improvements.
Once you see the questions, organize and focus them. Prompt the AI again:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Finally, pick the categories you want to explore in depth, such as “School environment” or “Reporting,” and ask:
Generate 10 questions for categories like ‘Peer support,’ ‘Reporting bullying,’ and ‘Safety in specific locations.’
Structured prompts lead to structured questions—and better data.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey feels more like a helpful chat than an interrogation. Instead of a static form, the survey adapts to each answer, probing when details are unclear and clarifying before moving on. In a complex space like school safety and bullying, this lets seniors fully express what’s happening—no answer boxes or checklists required.
AI survey generation (with tools like Specific’s AI survey maker) is miles ahead of the traditional approach because:
You build and edit surveys faster—just describe your goal and the AI generates the questions in seconds.
Follow-ups feel like an expert conversation, not a cold script.
You can chat about responses to analyze sentiment, themes, and trends in plain language.
Manual survey creation | AI-generated conversational survey |
|---|---|
Requires expert knowledge to design effective questions | AI drafts tailored, expert-level questions instantly |
No follow-ups unless pre-scripted | Dynamic, context-aware follow-up questions on the fly |
Manual analysis of long-form answers | Instant AI summaries, themes, and data insights |
Harder for students to engage (feels like a form) | Feels like a chat—students open up more |
Why use AI for high school senior surveys? Bullying and school safety are sensitive, deeply personal topics. AI-powered, conversational approaches make it easier to surface honest stories and uncover trends that can actually help—especially as 86% of students globally now use AI tools in their studies [3]. The survey feels natural to them, and you get clean data without policing forms or chasing clarifications.
With Specific, you get the gold standard in conversational surveys—frictionless for both creators and students, yet robust enough to cover your research needs. Want to learn how to create one from scratch? Check out this step-by-step guide for high school safety and bullying surveys.
See this school safety and bullying survey example now
Try out a real conversational survey to see how easily you can engage students and uncover what’s working—and what needs to change—when it comes to safety and bullying. Bring your surveys to life with the most effective, AI-powered questions and truly actionable insights.