Increasing concern about creating a healthy school environment for kids has landed a bunch of new ideas in Physical Education Departments. The plan goes by the name of the Health Framework for California Public Schools.

Evidently it’s a response to guidelines put out by the national Centers for Disease Control called the School Health Index. Here’s what CDC says:

Improving student health and safety can

• Increase students’ capacity to learn,
• Reduce absenteeism, and
• Improve physical fitness and mental alertness.

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 for the purpose of

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

First we’re asked to get together the people in our school and community who are interested, to evaluate how we’re doing in the following areas:

1. School Health and Safety Policies and Environment
2. Health Education
3. Physical Education and Other Physical Activity Programs
4. Nutrition Services
5. Health Services
6. Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services
7. Health Promotion for Staff
8. Family and Community Involvement

We decide together how to use the School Health Index to do this. CDC tells us it’s available several ways:

Online
This method is interactive and customizable. You can select the topics you want to include in your SHI and have your team members log in and participate. See Participate Online.

Paper Formats
The SHI is also available in the paper formats described below. To use any of the paper formats, see Participate Using a Paper Format.

PDF download
A downloadable version of the SHI is available. The downloaded SHI includes all the SHI health topics.

We end up with a scorecard that helps us see how we’re doing. The scores assigned to your responses enable you to identify your strengths and weaknesses. You will use the module and overall scorecards as the basis for completing the Planning Questions section below the module scorecard and the School Health Improvement Plan.

See https://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/shi/default.aspx for full details.

That’s not exactly the way our own state does it, but it’s clear they’re following the same line of thinking. By the use of Focus Groups, the California Department of Education achieved considerable public input to the Health Framework. See http://www2.cde.ca.gov/scripts/texis.exe/webinator/search?pr=www&query=health%20framework&su. Implementation began five years ago, to the extent of existing budget restraints.

A number of comments from people in the Focus Groups insisted that it should be taken out of Physical Education Departments and that a full semester course in Health Education should be a requirement. In this era of severe budget restrictions, that seems unrealistic. The Framework’s revision has just been put on hold by the legislature.

Yet the argument that the healthy schools for our kids affect their performance is uncontestable.

With the available tools we can get together with other concerned people, and use the CDC scorecard to help our own local schools……at least give it a try.