Join the conversation

As part of its week-long examination of student health and safety, Public School Insights has assembled abundant information on its member associations' initiatives to ensure every child a healthy learning environment.  Read on for an extensive list of resources from Learning First Alliance member associations...

American Association of School Administrators

The Asthma Leadership Project
AASA helps building school district leaders' capacity \to address childhood asthma.

Healthy School Environments
Poor indoor air quality poses a serious risk to children’s health and academic performance. To prepare schools for children, this program promotes holistic improvements to the school environment, while educating students and staff.

Leadership for Healthy Communities
Working in collaboration with the Leadership for Healthy Communities partner organizations, AASA encourages superintendents' commitment and action to reduce childhood obesity.

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

The Whole Child
The Whole Child is ASCD's major "public engagement and advocacy campaign to encourage schools and communities to work together to ensure that each student has access to a challenging curriculum in a healthy and supportive climate."  ASCD proposes "a broader definition of achievement and accountability that promotes the development of children who are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged." This engaging and interactive site includes useful resources, a policy blackboard, and an innovative share-your-story tool.  It also invites visitors to take a pledge in support of whole child education.

Healthy School Communities
This program is part of a large, multiyear plan to shift public dialogue about education from a purely academic focus to a whole child approach that encompasses all factors required for student success.

Council of Chief State School Officers

Health Education Assessment Project
CCSSO seeks to develop effective health education assessment resources, and to increase its members' capacity to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to improve student health literacy through improved health education instruction.

School Health Project
The School Health Project seeks to build the capacity of chief state school officers, their staff, and their partners to create strong school health policies and programs that minimize nonacademic barriers to learning. The project deals with the following health issues: obesity and related conditions, hunger, reproductive health including HIV/STDs and teen pregnancy, mental health, access to health care, asthma, environmental hazards, violence, and substance abuse.

National Association of State Boards of Education

NASBE has partnered with the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide guidance and assistance to state and local education policymakers and practitioners. Their goal is to encourage safe, healthy, and nurturing school environments for all of the nation's children and youth. Current projects are:

Increasing Healthy Eating Project
This project is focused on providing research-based capacity-building assistance and information to education leaders on helping schools establish, maintain, and evaluate healthy school nutrition environments and collaborate with parents, community, and public health partners on increasing healthy eating at school.

Strengthen Leadership and Governance for HIV Prevention
This project is focused on providing research-based capacity-building assistance to DASH-funded state or local education agencies that have expressed a commitment to pursue HIV-related education policy and program improvement initiatives.

Fit, Healthy and Ready to Learn
Fit, Healthy, and Ready to Learn is a publication organized around model policies that reflect best practice and can be adapted by states, school districts, public schools, and private schools to fit local circumstances. The points they address were suggested by the CDC school health guidelines, actual state and local policies, and reviewers’ comments. NASBE offers the model policy language free of copyright; courtesy attribution is requested.

Health Policy Database
A database of state-level school health policies.

How Schools Work and How to Work with Schools: A Primer for Non-Education Professionals Who Serve Children and Youth.
This guide includes a summary of the benefits for students when health professionals and educators work together; an overview of the core mission of education; a background chapter on how education works at the school, district, state, and national levels; as well as many practical tips for how to work effectively with educators, school administrators, and policymakers.

National Education Association

Health Information Network
The NEA Health Information Network, NEA's non-profit health affiliate , provides health information on topics of concern to educators and students. Current NEA HIN programs address anxiety, fitness, asthma, HIV/AIDS, sexuality, indoor air quality, men's and women’s health programs, tobacco, teen pregnancy, school and community safety, child health, environmental health, and substance abuse.

National Middle School Association

Health and Wellness Success Stories
NMSA is collecting stories about health and wellness programs in districts and schools. View others' success stories and submit your own.

National School Boards Association

School Health Programs
NSBA is committed to helping school policymakers and educators make informed decisions about health issues affecting the academic achievement and healthy development of students and the effective operation of schools. NSBA focuses primarily on topics supported by CDC funding, including coordinated school health programs, tobacco use prevention, and asthma. As feasible, NSBA addresses additional topics of importance to school leaders such as wellness, HIV/AIDS, and food safety in order to develop, adopt, and implement effective school health policies and practices.