Wellness Policy Resources
Student health is key to student success. Meeting the requirement for a school Wellness Policy is an important first step to improve every student's potential to learn. Ensuring a high level of policy implementation is necessary in order to derive positive student outcomes. The following resources will assist in creating a health promoting school that identifies and eliminates its contributions to poor nutrition and physical inactivity and then seeks ways to positively impact those areas each day.
Find Out What You Need
Policy Tool Kit
www.ActionforHealthyKids.org
The Action for Healthy Kids Web site contains a policy tool that includes sample language and processes.
Discover Where You Are and Determine Where You Want to Go
The Healthy Schools Program
www.healthiergeneration.org/schools.aspx
The Healthy School Program of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation provides schools with on-site and online technical assistance, resources, and national awards for school-based efforts to create healthier school environments.
School Health Index
www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth
The School Health Index helps a school answer important questions such as:
- What are our current strengths regarding nutrition and physical activity; and,
- What may be concerns that we have not considered in the past?
The School Health Index is an online electronic survey instrument that can be anonymously taken by each staff member with automatic totals and subtotals available in an action planning tool. Each of the eight components of the Coordinated School Health model is available for use, but you may choose to engage the process in only the nutrition and physical activity sections.
Fit, Healthy, and Ready to Learn
www.nasbe.org/healthyschools/fitnealthy.mgi
National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) provides a discussion on school health policy-making, additional resources that support the need for policy, and examples of policy related to physical activity, healthy eating and other student health concerns.
Changing the Scene: Improving the School Nutrition Environment
www.fns.usda.gov/tn
School-level examples describing cafeteria, fund-raising, competitive food policy change. Brief description of the circumstances and important players in creating change as well as the affect the financial bottom line.
PALS (Physical Activity for Local Students)
www.chef.org/programs/pals.php
The school or school district can engage it's community in a carefully sequenced and gently prescribed year long process to study availability and need of local students for physical activity. With the school as the organizing element, community members are empowered to address physical inactivity among youth.
Kids Walk to School
www.ede.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk/index.htm
Kids Walk to School Web site offers many strategies and examples of how students might increase their level of physical activity. What are local barriers? How can barriers be overcome? This is another opportunity to engage parents and community members. You'll find interesting possibilities here.
National Institutes for Health Care Management
Tackling Childhood Obesity Through Public-Private Collaboration
This issue brief outlines the problems associated with childhood obesity, offers information regarding prevention strategies, and summarizes assessment of efficacy, based on available research.
Additional Resources to Guide the Way
The Role of School Wellness in Creating High-Performing Schools
Over 700 educators participated in an interactive Web forum on April 27, 2006. Read a recap of the event and access the discussion archive.
Making it Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories
www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/nutrition/Making-It-Happen/
Allay concern and discover possibilities by reading the many stories of positive change as schools work to improve nutritional practices. Making it Happen! is available in hard copy of downloadable for the CDC Web site listed above.
School Health Programs
www.nsba.org
National School Boards Association maintains a valuable data-base that provides rational, descriptions, and examples of policy and programmatic possibilities related to optimizing student health.
Shape of the Nation
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/ShapeOfTheNation/
The National Association for Sport and Physical Education's (NASPE) 2006 report, Shape of the Nation, captures the most current data and measures for evaluating physical education in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. The report reinforces the importance of providing students grades K-12 with daily, quality physical education and methods for improving and expanding physical education programs nationwide.
Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active!
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/msy/
Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active! are free, Web-based materials to help 11- to 13-year olds develop awareness of how media influence the choices they make. The program's fun, hands-on, interactive activities teach critical thinking skills to will help young people make smart decisions about what they eat and how they spend their time.
Your State Department of Education likely has persons on staff that can assist you.
Their position titles vary from state to state:
- Physical Activity, Nutrition, Tobacco consultant
- Coordinated School Health consultant
- Health Education consultant