I've been able to piece together the following code that "builds" a checkbox list in Sharepoint 2016. That was step one. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to loop thru the whole list of Departments and determine which Departments have been selected. (There are about 10 departments in the list so far).
Here's the code I got to work for getting the data..
$.ajax({
                url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('" + listName + "')/Fields?$filter=Title eq 'Departments'",
                method: "GET",
                headers: { "Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose" },
                success: function (data) {
                    var results = data.d.results;
                    var itemhtml = "";
                        $.each(results, function (index, dataRec) {
                        var choices = dataRec.Choices.results;
                        $.each(choices, function (index, optVal) {
                            // add options to select here
                            $("#ckDepartments").append('<div class="form-check"><label class="form-check-label"><input type="checkbox" class="form-check-input" value="' + optVal + '" />' + optVal + '</label></div>');
                        });
                    });
                },
                error: function (data) { }
            });
And here's what i "tried" to get if the checkbox was checked.
function insertDepartments() 
            {
            var item = {
            "__metadata": { "type": "SP.Data.NewSiteRequestListItem" },
            "Departments": $('ckDepartments').prop('checked'),
            };
            }
Appreciate any suggestions/help you might have.