School Health & Wellness

Encouraging children to value good health, and teaching them how to achieve it, are two of the greatest gifts we can provide.

Schools have a key role to play in promoting the health, safety, and well-being of their students. While families are the primary caregivers for children, schools strive to help students learn to take responsibility for their own health. Children’s health is gaining attention at the district, state and national level resulting in positive changes on campus and in the classroom that can help address widespread health issues among our children and teens.

America is facing a national health crisis. Many children suffer from chronic illnesses once found only in adults, and obesity is rampant. One-fourth of all children show signs of high blood pressure or potential cardiac disease. These problems impact us all,, Together we can and must reverse the trend.

Health services and student wellness may not seem like top priorities when schools face funding challenges and major time constraints. Yet, an emphasis on health is one of the best investments a school can make. Not only do healthy, physically fit students have a better chance for long-term success, but studies also show:

• Healthier children make better students.
• Physical activity increases test scores.
• Only nutrient-rich food can provide the essential building blocks needed for developing brains.

In Orange County, the School Board adopted a new school wellness policy effective with the start of the 2006-07 school year.  This innovative policy mandates that every Orange County Public School (over 180 sites) establish a Healthy School Team (HST).

Based on the CDC’s Coordinated School Health Model, HSTs have members representing eight areas—health education; counseling, psychological and social services; school health services; nutrition services; physical education; the healthy school environment; health promotion for staff; and family and community.

HSTs are based on the belief that the health of our youth is a community-wide concern requiring involvement of parents, families, teachers, counselors, school administrators, health care professionals and businesses.  Schools can’t do this alone. 

These teams have been in place for about three years in 13 schools in east Orange County, and they are effective. Formed with assistance and leadership from the Winter Park Health Foundation, each HST has developed activities crafted to meet the specific needs of a school and raise awareness about health and wellness among students and school staff.

The activities are only limited by imagination. But it’s all about building a culture of health and wellness in schools and helping people understand the importance of good health when it comes to learning.

Resources:

The Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) system is a leader in Florida when it comes to innovative approaches to student wellness. It was the first large school district in the state to develop a school wellness policy that challenges all of its schools to look for creative ways of developing health and wellness programs by creating individual Healthy School Teams.  (See the My Word column originally published in the Orlando Sentinel.)

For additional information on Orange County’s School Wellness Policy and health services, and to find out what is happening at the state and national level when it comes to student health care, check out these websites.

OCPS School Wellness—The Orange County Public School System’s website emphasizes the important connection between student health and student performance. It describes efforts to boost student health through the creation of Healthy School Teams and features a link to the new school wellness policy. The site also includes links for healthy snack ideas, an overview of the current obesity crisis, healthy fundraising and celebration ideas, as well as alternatives to using food as a reward 

OCPS School Health—The Orange County Public School System’s website also provides an overview of health services available in schools. It notes that support from the Winter Park Health Foundation, as well as Health Central Hospital and the Orange County Health Department enables OCPS to provide licensed nurses in some school health rooms. There also are answers to frequently asked questions from parents such as “When should I keep my sick child home from school?”

The Florida Department of Education Coordinated School Health Program site describes the eight components of the program that is designed to help make Florida’s children healthy, fit and ready to learn. The site includes contact information and resources in each of the areas: comprehensive health education; P.E.; nutrition services; health services; healthy school environment; counseling, psychology and social services; health promotion for staff and family and community involvement.

The CDC’s Coordinated School Health (CSH) Program site provides an overview of the CSH program which is promoted nationally and serves as the basis for the creation of local Healthy School Teams and much of the work done by OCPS. Based on the belief that schools can’t tackle student health issues on their own, the program calls for participation by families, health care workers, the media, religious organizations and community organizations that serve youth.

Action for Healthy Kids is a public-private partnership of more than 50 national organizations and government agencies focused on helping bring about change in schools to improve nutrition and increase physical activity. The group is focused on dealing with the crisis of childhood overweight and obesity.  The site has resources for parents, educators and health professionals.

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools website keeps parents, health professionals and educators up to date on school health issues. The group, established to look for ways to improve the well-being of children and adolescents through school health programs and health care services, provides on its website policy and program information, links to publications as well as a Parents Resource Center.

The National Assembly on School Based Health Care (NASBHC) website, like the group, promotes expansion of school-based health care centers around the country to make sure all children receive good quality, comprehensive health care. It includes information about federal legislation proposing expansion of the centers, as well as publications focusing on related issues such as creative financing for the centers.