We believe:
Adults and students in a school community can take action to protect and enhance students’ health by providing a healthy school environment and using effective health education strategies. It is vital to take a dual approach to students’ health by reducing students’ risky behaviors and increasing students’ capacity to effectively deal with current and future health challenges. It is important to help students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to make informed decisions about their health and reduce risky behaviors.
Successful Strategies:
- Create awareness of how health impacts academic outcomes.
- Understand that health has three interconnected components - physical, social, and emotional.
- Keep in mind that students’ health is influenced on three different fronts - school, family, and community.
- Take a comprehensive approach to the health education of students.
- Work with school communities to take a systems change approach that emphasizes parent involvement, healthy school environments, community partnerships, and students’ connectedness to school.
Activities to Date:
- T.C.A. & 49 -1 - 1002: The Coordinated School Health Improvement Act of 2000 provided funding for 10 school districts to become CSH pilot sites. State CSH legislation, guidelines/standards and policies have been established. The Office of Coordinated School Health has been created within the Tennessee Department of Education. Additional positions have been filled to assist with the CSH statewide expansion.
- Annual outcome-based evaluation of CSH has been implemented since 2002.
- Legislation to provide CSH funding for all school systems was passed in 2006.
- Several state and regional conferences have been held to promote CSH in partnership with Action for healthy Kids, Tennessee School Health Coalition, TAHPERD and state universities. The CSH partnership has led to greater collaboration among theTennessee Department of Education, the Tennessee Department of Health and community-based organizations.
- The State Board of Education has approved state school health policies to help the mission of CSH.
- Many CSH presentations have been made to national, state and local organizations.