A RWJF-sponsored conference on childhood obesity and children’s body mass index (BMI) has led to a special supplement on the surveillance, screening and reporting of children’s BMI. The conference, which was held in January 2008, convened a forum of researchers and clinicians who are addressing obesity in their respective fields. The goals of the meeting were to review experiences with BMI data collection, understand how to communicate BMI results to caregivers, explore cultural differences in interpretation of BMI and discuss the legal and confidentiality implications of data collection. The resulting Pediatrics supplement, published in September 2009, addresses the conference topics in greater detail.