Education Law

Schools and public health departments: partnering for success

While school leaders and other BoardBuzz readers are busy making sure students are performing well academically and able to graduate from high school, you might not realize that public health departments are doing the same.

Why?

Research shows that the more education one has, the healthier that person is. Not only that, but also that being healthy is essential for being able to learn and obtain education.  Makes sense, right?

Some of you BoardBuzz readers may already know that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released Healthy People 2020, the nation?s new 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention, which aims for a society in which all people live long, healthy lives. 

You may be asking yourselves two questions:

1) Have setting such objectives produced any results in the past?

2) What role can the education community play in this?

The answer to the first question is that preliminary analyses conducted in the last decade show that the country has either progressed toward or met 71 percent of its Healthy People targets ? both exciting and positive news!  The answer to the second question is that Healthy People 2020 has a number of new topic areas that are relevant to schools including:  Early and Middle Childhood; Adolescent Health; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health; Preparedness; and Sleep Health and that schools are well positioned to help the nation with such issues because they serve millions of children and adolescents and their communities on a daily basis. 

So how exactly can schools help children and youth be healthy and ready to learn while also helping achieve national efforts related to the Healthy People objectives?  For one, schools can work with their local health departments – try knocking on their door, and maybe they?ll also be trying to knock on yours!  To learn more how to partner with health departments, check out this publication released by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors last year. 

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the use of a coordinated school health (CSH) model, which includes eight interrelated components such as health education, nutrition services, and a healthy and safe environment.  The CDC has recently expanded its CSH website to include frequently asked questions about CSH, key goals, a model framework for planning, strategies for implementing and evaluating a coordinated approach to school health, fact sheets on the status of school health policies and practices, among other relevant items. 

And if you need more information on steps you can take to promote school health, contact NSBA?s School Health Programs at schoolhealth@nsba.org.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).