How can I economically check if a UI DropDown is open or closed?

I have managed to find an surprisingly easy way to solve this issue. The "Dropdown List" that is dynamically created, is created from the "Template" object in the dropdown object's hierarchy. I added a small script to that template object, with a public GameObject variable pointing to my main script component as well as a a public GameObject pointing to itself. When the script is started, it checks its own object name, and if that is "Dropdown List", it sets a bool flag in my main script. When it is destroyed, it does the same. See the code in the script below:

using UnityEngine;

public class DropdownOpenScript : Monobehaviour
{
    // Public variables
    public GameObject self;
    public GameObject controller;      //This is the object containing my controller script

    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        if (self.name == "Dropdown List")
        {
            //ControllScript is my main script controlling my program opperation.
            //It contains a public boolean bDropdownOpen to indicate whether the
            //dropdown list is open or not
            controller.GetComponent<ControllScript>().bDropdownOpen = true;
        }
    }

    private void OnDestroy()
    {
        if (self.name == "Dropdown List")
        {
            controller.GetComponent<ControllScript>().bDropdownOpen = false;
        }
    }
}
```