Education Law

Help kids stay healthy and ready to learn on National Healthy Schools Day!

National Healthy Schools Day is here and BoardBuzz encourages you to transform it into an ongoing celebration!  Observed on April 27, 2009 and sponsored by the National Healthy Schools Network, Inc. and the Coalition for Healthier Schools, this day promotes healthy school environments that are conducive to learning and help protect school occupants.  The day unites schools, parents, personnel, advocates, and agencies nationwide to promote healthy and green school environments for all children and school staff. 

BoardBuzz knows too well that children’s academic achievement can be impaired by unhealthy school environments, which can occur because of things like poor indoor air quality.  And poor indoor air quality is often a culprit in the onset of asthma - one of the leading causes of school absenteeism.   National Healthy Schools Day is the first day of School Building Week, presenting a great opportunity for schools and school districts to:

1) talk about children’s environmental health;

2) focus on school facility policies or practices that support children’s and employees’ health and safety, and promote healthy school environments; and

3) include several stakeholders such as school officials, children’s environmental health professionals, parents, and elected officials, among others. 

The day is also an excellent time for schools to adopt guiding principles of school environmental quality, including every child’s and school employee’s right to an environmentally safe and healthy learning environment that is clean and in good repair. 

There are several events that can be held to help recognize the day, including:

• A workshop or a panel discussion on green cleaning or school indoor air quality;
• A hearing on indoor air quality and asthma;
• Distribution of information related to these issues;
• A school board, mayor/city council, or governor/state legislature National Healthy Schools Day proclamation or new policy initiatives;  
• Demonstration of green cleaning practices and products; and
• A conference on the importance of healthy school environments for children’s health and learning.

Those recognizing the day can also write or visit school principals or facility directors to ask about cleaning and pest control products or school repair needs; learn how many children use asthma inhalers at school; walk around schools to identify any repairs that are needed and/or any health or safety problems that need attention; and write a letter to the editor of a newspaper on the importance of a healthy school. 

To help celebrate, the National Healthy Schools Day web page includes a guide to green cleaning, a model proclamation, sample letters to the editor or school, and a checklist for healthy schools.  Furthermore, NSBA’s School Health Programs has an “Asthma in Schools 101″ Packet that can be ordered online which includes useful materials on asthma prevention and management in schools.  Also, if you subscribe to ASBJ, check out a special section on green schools in its April 2009 edition.

Join BoardBuzz and NSBA in helping to keep our kids and schools healthy!  To learn more about National Healthy Schools Day, click here. For further information on School Building Week, click here.

What are you doing to keep your schools “green”?  Let us know!

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on April 27, 2009 (boomark / email).