Schools play a critical role in improving the dietary and physical activity behaviors of children and adolescents. Schools can create environments that are supportive of healthy eating and physical activity by implementing policies and practices. Providing students with learning opportunities that support healthy eating and regular physical activity is also important for students to learn about and practice these behaviors.

CDC synthesized research and best practices related to promoting healthy eating and physical activity in schools, culminating in guidelines informed by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, and the Healthy People objectives related to healthy eating and physical activity among children, adolescents, and schools. The guidelines serve as the foundation for developing, implementing, and evaluating school-based healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices for students.

Use a Coordinated Approach to Develop, Implement, and Evaluate Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Policies and Practices

Representatives from different segments of the school and community, including parents and students, should work together to maximize healthy eating and physical activity opportunities for students.

Strategies

• Coordinate healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices through a school health council and school health coordinator
• Assess healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices
• Use a systematic approach to develop, implement, and monitor healthy eating and physical activity policies
• Evaluate healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices

School Health Index

The School Health Index (SHI): Self-Assessment & Planning Guide is an online self-assessment and planning tool (also available in a downloadable, printable version) that schools can use to improve their health and safety policies and programs. It’s easy to use and completely confidential.

The SHI was developed by CDC in partnership with school administrators and staff, school health experts, parents, and national nongovernmental health and education agencies to

• Enable schools to identify strengths and weaknesses of health and safety policies and programs.
• Enable schools to develop an action plan for improving student health, which can be incorporated into the School Improvement Plan.
• Engage teachers, parents, students, and the community in promoting health-enhancing behaviors and better health.

The SHI is based on CDC’s research-based guidelines for school health programs, which identify the policies and practices most likely to be effective in reducing youth health risk behaviors.

Using the School Health Index

The School Health Index (SHI): Self-Assessment & Planning Guide was developed by CDC in partnership with school administrators and staff, school health experts, parents, and national nongovernmental health and education agencies to

• Enable schools to identify strengths and weaknesses of health and safety policies and programs.
• Enable schools to develop an action plan for improving student health, which can be incorporated into the School Improvement Plan.
• Engage teachers, parents, students, and the community in promoting health-enhancing behaviors and better health.

The SHI has two activities that are to be completed by teams from your school: a self-assessment process and a planning for improvement process.

• The self-assessment process involves members of your school community coming together to discuss what your school is already doing to promote good health and to identify your strengths and weaknesses. The SHI allows you to assess the extent to which your school implements the types of policies and practices recommended by CDC in its research-based guidelines for school health and safety policies and programs.
• The planning for improvement process enables you to identify recommended actions your school can take to improve its performance in areas that received low scores. It guides you through a simple process for prioritizing the various recommendations. This step will help you decide on a handful of actions to implement this year. Finally, you will complete a School Health Improvement Plan to list the steps you will take to implement your actions.

The SHI currently addresses seven health topic areas, including:

• Physical activity and physical education.
• Nutrition.
• Tobacco-use prevention.
• Alcohol and other drug use prevention
• Chronic health conditions (e.g., asthma, food allergies)
• Unintentional injury and violence prevention (safety).
• Sexual health, including HIV, other STD and pregnancy prevention.

It also includes cross-cutting questions, which address policies and practices that apply to all seven health topic areas.