BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — Morgan County parents say an age-inappropriate question was included in a fourth grade survey that went out to students.
The Morgan County Partnership issued an apology for the line of questions on the survey sent out to fourth-graders in November. The statement says the issue arose because the survey provider, the Search Institute, added additional demographic questions to the fourth and sixth grade surveys which the Partnership failed to notice before sending the survey to schools in the county.
Highlighted area of concern posted by Morgan County parent
The demographic questions, as highlighted in a post from one of the parents in the community, asked fourth graders “Do you identify as transgender?”
Morgan County Schools shared The Morgan County Partnership “would like to extend a sincere apology for the incident that occurred on November 21, 2025, regarding the fourth grader’s Developmental Assets Profile survey” and pledging to examine internal practices and procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Some parents commented on a social media thread that some families who opted out reported their children received the survey anyway. Others said a sample survey sent out for review by parents was not the same as those given to the students.
The Morgan County Partnership says they’ve been administering these surveys in collaboration with Morgan County Schools since 2009 without incident.
The Partnership says when the issue was discovered, they quickly called the Search Institute, the survey’s provider.
“Search Institute added additional demographic questions to their 4th & 6th grade surveys. The Partnership did not catch that the additional questions were added to the survey.”
Letter from Morgan County Partnership
