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States Gain Ground in School Health

Childhood obesity rates have risen sharply over the last three decades, but data from CDC’s School Health Policies and Programs Study show that more schools are heeding CDC’s recommendations for improving our children’s health and are starting to make a difference in the nation’s schools. Through CDC’s goals process, the agency has placed a significant amount of resources into improving the health and safety of students by implementing comprehensive and coordinated instruction, programs, policies, and services that involve families, schools, and the community.

Less junk food, more exercise, and better tobacco policies are some of the major improvements CDC identified in the largest and most comprehensive study of health policies and programs in the nation’s schools. State accomplishments include:

Arkansas has kept childhood obesity rates stable for the past two years by implementing a comprehensive initiative that includes improvements in school nutrition and increased physical activity. A key to its success is the creation of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI), a nonpartisan independent health policy center. Now in its fourth year, ACHI has collected data on the annual body/mass index (BMI) assessments for half a million students in 1,100 schools. ACHI also provides progress reports to all key stakeholders on the annual BMI assessment, and CDC has been pivotal in advising ACHI in interpreting the data and ensuring accurate results. Its next steps are to analyze the data to determine which population groups have more of an obesity burden and to provide resources to help those groups reduce their risks.

Colorado’s Physical Activity and Nutrition Program is in eight rural communities to develop multisector obesity prevention work plans based on community assessments and formative research. The program has received support from CDC and numerous partners and is successfully continuing partnerships to support comprehensive community approaches. In Commerce City, for example, approaches include:

• Eat Smart, Be Smart: A nutrition, cooking, and literacy program
  
for low-income preschool students and their parents.

• Helping Hands Youth: A community gardening program for youth.
  
• Mobile Market: A small-business pilot program to deliver fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables to various locations in the community.
  

The Texas state legislature mandated in 2001 that all elementary schools have a coordinated school health program for both nutrition and physical activity by 2007. The Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program is an elementary school program that provides guidance on school curriculum, physical education, school lunch, and family involvement. It is proven to be effective in producing diet and physical activity change persisting into early adolescence and to prevent increases in overweight from grades 3 to 5. This program also sparked Texas state legislation requiring a coordinated school health program.

CATCH has been adopted by more than 1,500 schools in Texas, approximately one third of the state’s elementary schools. Funding from CDC’s Prevention Research Centers Program boosted CATCH’s research base, allowing local officials to refine and test different strategies.