Verkada Teen Vaping Survey: School Impacts & Solutions

As students head back to class this month, Verkada's inaugural Teen Vaping Survey reveals a rise in vaping among teens across the country and profound negative impacts tied to it, including lowered academic performance, decreased student engagement and heightened depression.

The data show that teens who vape are actually willing and trying to quit but are unable, with the school environment among contributing roadblocks.

What's happening on school campuses?

Verkada partnered with Harris Poll to survey 2,650 Americans, including parents

Nowhere has the impact of this rise in teen vaping been felt more than at school, primarily, the research reveals, in bathrooms and classrooms. Teachers are on double duty, both presiding over class instruction and attempting to monitor and police teen vaping. Teens, who already navigate a full list of challenges tied to the school experience, are now adding vaping to their lists of disruptors. 

Verkada partnered with Harris Poll to survey 2,650 Americans, including parents, high school teachers and vaping and non-vaping teens. These survey findings, paired with aggregate insights from Verkada's over 20,000 US vape-detecting devices, provide a view into what's happening on school campuses across the U.S.

Challenges of Verkada's 2023 Teen Vaping Survey

Key findings from Verkada's 2023 Teen Vaping Survey include: 

• Vaping's popularity amongst teens is on the rise. Verkada's Vape Activity Index shows a 20% increase in vaping activity in the 2022-2023 academic year compared to the academic year prior. More than 4 in 5 teachers (84%) and students (82%) surveyed believe there has been an increase in teen vape usage over the past 24 months.
• This rise in vaping is having a direct impact on educators' ability to teach and students' academic performance. Among teachers who deal with classroom disruptions due to vaping, most (92%) say those disruptions have a negative impact on overall student academic performance.
• Teens know it's a problem, especially those who vape. Nearly all teens who vape (96%) view teen vaping to be a problem, with 61% of vaping teens considering themselves to be addicted and 54% wanting to quit vaping altogether.
• Vaping teens are taking over the bathrooms, which is having ripple effects on student engagement and attendance. Almost all teens surveyed report that bathrooms are where vaping occurs most frequently on campus (90% of non-vaping teens vs. 70% of vaping teens).
• Vaping teens are sending alarming signals of depression. They are twice as likely than non-vaping teens to have felt depressed in the last month (71% vs. 35%) and are significantly less likely to feel positive about their physical health (42% vs. 67%).
• Teachers, who have some of the best insight into the issue, are concerned about its impact on academic performance. Nearly 9 in 10 teachers (87%) agree that vaping in school is disruptive to the learning environment. Around half report that vaping teens struggle to stay motivated (53%) and have trouble focusing (51%).
• Teachers and teens agree that additional security and technology would be most effective in curbing vaping in school. Three-quarters of vaping teens (77%) believe it's easy to get away with vaping at school, but school leadership is underutilizing technology that they say would help them address the problem.

Impact of vaping on teens

"The post-pandemic resurgence of teen vaping has made the already difficult job of educating middle school and high school students even more challenging," said Brandon Davito, Senior Vice President of Product and Operations at Verkada.

"Teachers and school administrators have the best visibility into the impact of vaping on teens, and they are rightly concerned. The findings from this study reinforce what we are hearing from school staff across the country and issue an urgent warning for all parents, administrators, and teens to take action."

Sensors reduce school vaping

"I have seen firsthand the negative impact vaping has on teens who vape — as well as the ripple effect on those who do not. The vaping epidemic very quickly consumed school restrooms, and our students who did not vape didn't felt safe using them," said Tim Ivey, Chief Technology and Facilities Officer at Iredell-Statesville Schools.

"In our district, we prioritized adding sensors in the restrooms to tackle the problem directly and equipped our school administrators with the tools they needed to quickly mitigate the behavior. We've dramatically reduced vaping in the restrooms and our students have seen the impact. When we asked them about how the new sensors were working, one told us that vaping had declined so much that they felt the technology had 'given the bathroom back to everyone.'"

Verkada's Teen Vaping Survey

"Verkada's Teen Vaping Survey is a foundational research study that provides a unique view into teen vaping and its implications," said Rob Jekielek, Managing Director at the Harris Poll.

"The findings — which include that over 60% of vaping teens say that they are addicted — may be startling but are likely not too surprising. They clearly showcase both the magnitude of issues with vaping and their classroom impact."