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Your Place in School Health

Advocating for Healthy Kids in Your School District

Volume 9, Number 7 – Fall 2005

Editors: Carol A. Rice, Ph.D., RN, Professor and Extension Health Specialist, and Janet M. Pollard, MPH, Extension Associate-Health

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Your Place in School Health: Advocating for healthy kids in your school district

Childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes, and drug, alcohol and tobacco use are big issues requiring the attention of parents, schools, communities, and our government. Addressing big issues like these requires a lot of help from a lot of people.

School Health Advisory Councils (SHACs) offer an opportunity to bring interested people with a variety of expertise and resources together to work toward improving the health of children. Participating in a School Health Advisory Council is a strategy in the Texas AgriLife Extension Service’s Strategic Plan.

“The health of our children now and for a lifetime will not depend on spectacular medical breakthroughs, but rather on lifestyle choices they make. If we can provide our children with the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy lifestyle choices, we can dramatically reduce their risk of death, disease, and injury for a lifetime. This ultimately will reduce their personal health care risk as well as reduce the spiraling costs of health care; it could even help improve economic productivity. Armed with this information, it is imperative that all of us take action to encourage our youth to adopt healthy lifestyles.”1

This issue of HealthHints will focus on School Health Advisory Councils and how community members, including Extension agents, can join together with others to improve children’s health. County agents interested in working on tough issues such as childhood overweight and substance abuse are likely to have a much greater impact as part of a School Health Advisory Council.

What are School Health Advisory Councils? Key points about structure and function

A School Health Advisory Council is an advisory group of individuals who represent different segments of the community.1 Members may include students, parents, teachers, administrators, health professionals, non-profit agencies, civil servants, and any other interested parties within the community, with the majority being parents of students in the school district. The goal is to have members who represent your community as a whole, sharing all viewpoints. The SHAC then works together to improve the health of children in the school district. This group provides advice and support to the school system (via the school board) on aspects of coordinated school health (see next section on “Terminology and Law”). Their role is specifically advisory and is not legally binding or considered a part of the school district’s administration in any way.

One of the biggest benefits of schools, parents, and community groups getting together is that they can form powerful coalitions to address the health needs of students.2 This is why it is important for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service to partner with schools. County Extension agents can bring to the table a multitude of resources on obesity, type 2 diabetes, and more. Extension, through membership in SHACs, can be a part of key changes in school health.

Key points you need to know about SHACs:

Terminology and Law: Increasing our understanding

There are two terms commonly used when working in health education in the schools:

Defining comprehensive and coordinated school health helps us to better understand the wording of the law as well as the way in which our schools are required to function. These definitions will also guide our understanding of the areas of focus for SHACs.

Comprehensive School Health

Comprehensive school health is about teaching children how to make healthy choices, including development, delivery, and evaluation of planned instructional programs and activities.6 Comprehensive school health is the instructional component of school health. To be comprehensive, it should address physical, emotional, and social dimensions of health; develop health knowledge, attitudes, and skills; and be tailored to each age level. It should also be designed to motivate and assist students to maintain and improve their health, prevent disease, and reduce health-related risk.7

Sometimes a SHAC will be appointed to work specifically on comprehensive school health issues, such as selecting, designing, or tailoring a health curriculum to meet the needs of a particular school or an entire school district.

If we do not combine classroom instruction with an environment that supports healthy behavior, however, we fail in our efforts. That is why, in addition to comprehensive school health instruction, we need coordinated school health programs.

Coordinated School Health

Coordinated school health is about surrounding children with healthy choices,6 including the following eight components:

By law, SHACs can advise not only about health curriculum but also about the eight components of coordinated school health. (For more information about the eight coordinated school health components, see the excerpt from Healthy Schools/Healthy Kids on page 9 of this issue of HealthHints.)

In fact, two Senate Bills (SB) have been passed that have made great strides for school health: SB 19, which instated School Health Advisory Councils and SB 1357, which broadened the scope of SHACs to include the eight components of coordinated school health.

“Realizing the problem of rising obesity rates among children prompted the 77th Legislature to pass SB 19 in May of 2001.”9 SB 19, you may already know, made it law that all public elementary school children who are in full-day kindergarten and grades 1–6 are required to participate in physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes per day or 135 minutes per week. SB 19 also directed the Texas Education Agency to make available a coordinated school health curriculum and requires every school system to be trained in its implementation by 2007.3 (Several curriculum options are now available to meet this requirement. For state-approved curriculum, see http://www.tea.state.tx.us/curriculum/hpe/approvedcshp.html.)

What you may not have known is that SB 19 also included the requirement that all school districts must have a School Health Advisory Council. During the 78th legislative session in 2003, the law was revised to expand the duties of SHACs to include all eight areas of coordinated school health.

SHACs can prove invaluable to school districts by assessing a district’s health program needs and providing advice regarding these needs, including a variety of topics such as curriculum, exceptional children, or drop-out prevention.

Extension Getting Involved: Key to meeting health needs of our children

“Our power lies in our ability to collaborate, educate, persuade, and assist in a volunteer capacity. We are truly a grassroots movement.”10

If a SHAC is already established in your school district, make it a priority to get involved.

Key points for becoming a SHAC member in your district:

Steps for Setting Up a SHAC: Help for beginning a successful SHAC

If there is not a SHAC established in your community, you can help to start one, but you don’t have to do this alone. Partner with people in your community to communicate with the school district and help them to appoint members to the SHAC who will be representative of your community.

Here are some important steps you can take to begin to establish a successful SHAC:

For further guidance, see the following web resources:

Common Concerns: How you can respond

School personnel, parents, and community members may raise some concerns during the process of establishing a SHAC. The following is a list of some common concerns and how you might respond:

School Board’s Concern: “It costs too much. We don’t have the money or training facilities.”
Response: Funding is limited, but this is an opportunity to look at what is in place and what can be improved. There are funding sources for new ideas to improve children’s health.

Principal’s Concern: “There is no time. The schedule can’t handle one more thing.”
Response: A truly coordinated school health plan can actually take less time overall because it reduces duplication of efforts.

Community’s Concern: “We’ve always done it this way.”
Response: The needs and concerns of youth and their families have changed, and schools need to change to meet those needs.

Parent’s Concern: “When I was in school, we didn’t have school health and I came out okay.”
Response: Today’s youth face very different issues from those of the past. Teachers alone cannot meet the complex needs of today’s students.

Teacher’s Concern: “What’s in it for me?”
Response: Your job will be easier. When students’ health needs are met, more students arrive at school ready to learn. Their success will make them more willing to participate and less likely to have behavior issues.11

Understanding Your Role: Health behaviors and health components

Understanding behaviors that put our children at the most significant risk for premature death and for social problems helps us define the areas in which schools can work to develop an environment conducive to healthy actions. An important excerpt, taken from the Healthy Schools–Healthy Kids Network published by the American Cancer Society, discusses six risk behaviors and their potential effects on a student’s academic, social, and physical well-being. These six behaviors are:

Take a moment to read the excerpt. Then, see the resources listed at our Extension websites listed below, which can help facilitate work with your local SHAC.

Eight Components of a Coordinated School Health Program

(The following is an excerpt taken from ACS, Healthy Schools/Healthy Kids: School Health: Parents: Facts: Health Education at http://schoolhealth.info/, 2005.)

Most people agree that for kids to succeed in school, they cannot be tired, hungry, using illegal drugs, or concerned that violence may occur at any time around them. Perhaps less apparent, however, is the fact that problems such as poor nutrition, domestic violence, alcoholism, substance abuse, depression and more can adversely affect not only a child’'s health, but also his or her ability to learn! And that is precisely why a coordinated approach to school health can make a difference. A coordinated approach to school health improves kids’ health and their capacity to learn through the support of families, schools, and communities working together. At its very core, Coordinated School Health (CSH) is about keeping students healthy over time, reinforcing positive healthy behaviors throughout the school day, and making it clear that good health and learning go hand in hand.

CSH offers students the information and skills they will need to make good choices in life. More specifically, a coordinated approach to school health can address up to eight different aspects of health and education. These include:

  1. School Environment – To learn effectively, children must be in a school environment where they feel comfortable and supported. It is increasingly important that we make children feel safe at school as well. Safety at school is critical to a child’s ability to concentrate and learn.
  2. Health Education – School staff—teachers, nurses, administrators, or counselors—can work together to develop an ongoing approach to help students build health-related knowledge and skills from kindergarten through 12th grade.
  3. School Meals and Nutrition – Many students eat one or two meals a day at school. Thus, schools have a unique opportunity to offer more nutritious food, as well as develop coordinated educational activities to encourage students to make healthful eating and good nutrition a priority for life.
  4. Physical Education – Schools can and should encourage students to lead a physically active lifestyle both in and out of school. One way to start is to emphasize the importance of regular exercise as a lifelong activity.
  5. Health Services – Growing kids require a regularly scheduled health “maintenance” program—including immunizations, dental checkups, physicals, eye exams, other types of screenings, and in certain instances, daily medication. With the help of health professionals on campus, schools can encourage preventive services to enable students to take proactive measures to stay healthy and get more out of school.
  6. Counseling, Psychological, and Mental Health Services – Today, many students have the added stress of coping with emotional challenges stemming from problems such as parental divorce, alcoholism, abuse, and drug addiction. By offering guidance, counseling, and instruction to students, as well as referrals to mental health professionals, schools can help parents take a big step toward making an even greater difference in a student’s total performance.
  7. Staff Wellness – Students aren’t the only ones who need to stay in good health. Educators and school staff are important role models for students. Successful schools have healthy, highly motivated staff with low rates of employee absenteeism.
  8. Parent/Community Partnerships – One of the biggest benefits of CSH can be a closer working relationship between parents and schools. Working with parents, businesses, local health officials, and other community groups, schools can form powerful coalitions to address the health needs of students.

Six Factors That Put Our Children at Risk

(The following is an excerpt from: ACS, Healthy Schools/Healthy Kids: School Health: Parents: Facts: Health Education at http://schoolhealth.info/, 2005.)

Six health risk behaviors are identified as the most significant causes of premature death and social problems for youth. We worry about what these do to our children now, but these behaviors, established early in life, will continue to have consequences, as our children become adults.

Just count to six...

  1. Intentional and unintentional injuries
  2. Tobacco use
  3. Alcohol and other drug use
  4. Nutritional behaviors
  5. Lack of physical activity
  6. Sexual behaviors that result in HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), and unintended pregnancies.

And, these same six risks are proven health-related threats to academic success. How can smoking hurt your child’s grades? Read on. Research shows that these six risks impact children in ways you would not imagine.

Intentional and unintentional injuries.
The threat: a lack of interest in school, truancy, high dropout rate, and behavioral problems at school.

Tobacco use.
The threat: poorer relationships with parents, lower grades, increased absenteeism, and more frequent depression and other risk-taking behaviors.

Alcohol and other drug use.
The threat: poorer relationships with parents, lower grades, increased absenteeism, and more frequent depression and other risk-taking behaviors.

Nutritional behaviors.
The threat: reduced attention span, short-term memory, emotional effect, and social functioning.

Lack of physical activity.
The threat: lower oxygen uptake, increased susceptibility to stress, increased risk of diabetes and other diseases.

Sexual behaviors that result in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and unintended pregnancies.
The threat: significantly reduced academic achievement, increased drop-out rates, lower grades, ongoing sexual risky behaviors, other risk-taking behaviors. Studies show that participation in one of the above risky behaviors can lead to participation in multiple behaviors.

What are the Benefits of Quality School Health Programs?

The true benefit of quality school health programs is that children will grow up to be healthy adults and have a better quality of life as they grow older. They will be less likely to get cancer or have a heart attack; they will be able to enjoy themselves and their families more. However, health education not only has long-term benefits for our children; there are short-term advantages as well:

References

  1. American Cancer Society (2003). Improving school health: A guide to school health. Retrieved
    October 14, 2005. From http://63.173.64.5/hkn/pdfs/Ntl_Guide_to_SHAC.pdf.
  2. American Cancer Society (2005). Healthy schools – healthy kids: Parents – Facts – Health education.
    Retrieved October 25, 2005. From http://63.173.64.5/hkn/parents/toolbar/
    p_facts_healthed.html.
  3. American Cancer Society (2005). A giant step toward coordinated school health in Texas. Retrieved
    October 14, 2005. From http://63.173.64.5/hkn/community/print_community/
    print_law.htm.
  4. American Cancer Society (2005). Healthy schools – healthy kids: Community advisory council.
    Retrieved October 10, 2005. From http://63.173.64.5/hkn/community/print_community/
    print_advisory.htm.
  5. American Cancer Society (2005). Healthy schools – healthy kids: Parent advisory council. Retrieved
    October 10, 2005. From http://63.173.64.5/hkn/parent/print_files/print_advisory.htm.
  6. Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (2005). Position statement
    on school health education. Retrieved October 14, 2005. From http://www.tahperd.org/LINKS/
    links_health.html.
  7. American Cancer Society (2005). Healthy schools – healthy kids: Community facts glossary.
    Retrieved October 10, 2005. From http://63.173.64.5/hkn/community/print_community/
    print_glossary.htm.
  8. American Cancer Society (2005). Healthy schools – healthy kids: Community facts. Retrieved
    October 10, 2005. From http://63.173.64.5/hkn/community/print_community/print_facts.htm.
  9. University of Texas School of Public Health (2005). School health legislation. Retrieved October
    24, 2005. From http://www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/catch/Legislation.htm.
  10. Texas Department of Agriculture (2005). Does your district have a SHAC? It’s the law. Retrieved
    October 14, 2005. From http://www.squaremeals.org/fn/render/channel/items/
    0,1249,2348_2954_2974_0,00.html.
  11. Dabney, C. & Smith, M. (2005). Take time for healthy kids: Children who learn to live healthy,
    live longer (PowerPoint presentation).

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