Applauding School Wellness Efforts with Colorado’s Statewide Recognition Program
March 11, 2013 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign
A snapshot of success in making schools healthier, from Colorado.
Today we're featuring a case study from Health in Mind, a new report from HSC and Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), which details immediate solutions that can help close the achievement gap and create a healthy future for all children. Here, we learned how Colorado makes health and wellness part of how it measures success.
By Kadesha Thomas
A middle school offers nearly an hour of physical education and 25 minutes of recess—every day. At a nearby high school, about 70 percent of students are involved in at least one of the school’s 14 athletic clubs, while another elementary school allows teachers and fifth-grade students to square off in an annual softball competition.
This is just a snapshot of what is happening throughout the 178 school districts in the state of Colorado. Since 2010, schools have been invited each year to tout these and other health and wellness efforts during the state’s Healthy School Champions’ Recognition Program. The recognition program allows schools to submit a voluntary self-assessment, called the Healthy School Champions’ Score Card, detailing how they are supporting health and wellness for students, staff and the surrounding community.
Each year, nearly 200 schools submit information to the online assessment; in 2012, 32 were selected as Champions. The winning schools receive a banner to display in the school and a cash award between $500 and $5,000 in recognition of the good work. “When we look at which schools will be selected, we want to see that health and wellness is infused into the culture beyond just projects and one-time programs. We want to see that their philosophy has shifted to include health,” said Amy Dillon, Co-Director for Coordinated School Health at the Colorado Department of Education.
“The school-level success stories from Champions demonstrate strong administrative support, robust health teams with linkages to the community and that the school prioritizes their efforts based on need.”
The program is a collaborative effort with partners, including the Colorado Department of Education, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Legacy Foundation, which serves as a critical friend and partner to the state Department of Education on education policy. Funding for the program comes from The Colorado Health Foundation, a local funder committed to making Colorado the healthiest state in the nation. Though the recognition program attracts applicant schools from across the state’s diverse landscape—some schools are in districts with only 100 students total while others are in bustling urban centers—all schools need to demonstrate a commitment to the eight components of the coordinated school health model: health education, health services, school environment, nutrition services and education, physical education and activity, counseling and mental health services, staff wellness and involvement from the families and communities.
The larger goal is to improve education by promoting health and wellness. About 20 percent of the state’s high school students reported being overweight or obese on the 2009 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey. About 10 percent had attempted suicide in the year prior, and another 25 percent reported using tobacco in the previous month.
“This is an opportunity for schools to be incentivized, to see what their neighbors are doing and learn from policies and strategies on the ground that are highly successful,” explained Stephanie Wasserman, MSPH, Director of Health and Wellness at the Colorado Legacy Foundation. “It serves as a promotional tool for schools to learn more about best practices. In the future, we hope that this becomes just a natural part of addressing school culture, students’ needs and improving academic outcomes.”
