Focus Area: School & After School

Cost-Effectiveness of Commonly Used Childhood Obesity Interventions in Schools and ECE Settings to Inform Strategic Planning

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This project will identify commonly used obesity prevention programs that have limited effectiveness for obesity prevention and are thus a suboptimal use of limited public health resources. The specific aims are to: 1) Identify two commonly implemented childhood obesity prevention interventions targeting children ages 0-8 that may lack evidence for impact; 2) Conduct a systematic More

Drinking water access in California schools: Room for improvement following implementation of school water policies

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This study aimed to investigate how access to free drinking water in California public schools changed after implementation of 2010 federal and state school water policies. Repeated cross-sectional surveys were conducted with administrators in a random sample of California public schools, stratified by school type and urban-centric geography, from 2010 to 2011 (n = 240) More

Urban School Food Infrastructure: Current Issues, Challenges, and Solutions

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In the next year, an estimated 1 in 4 children will experience food insecurity (up from 1 in 6, pre-pandemic), disproportionately impacting children in low-income households and racial/ethnic minorities. To mediate loss of school meals during closures and reduce COVID-19 exposure, Congress authorized the USDA to permit local education authorities to apply approaches from the More

Addressing Equity in Rural Schools: Opportunities and Challenges for School Meal Standards Implementation

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Few studies examine why rural public schools have weaker policies and practices related to school nutrition environments compared to their urban counterparts. It is important to understand this disparity because federal school meal standards aim for children to access health‐promoting nutrition environments. In this study, we identify challenges and opportunities for the implementation of school More

Wellness School Assessment Tool Version 3.0: An Updated Quantitative Measure of Written School Wellness Policies

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Schools play an important role in promoting student wellness. As directed by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, the US Department of Agriculture updated the requirements for written school wellness policies in 2016. The WellSAT (Wellness School Assessment Tool) is an online tool that provides a quantitative score for wellness policy comprehensiveness and strength. The WellSAT More

Prioritizing Health in State ESSA Plans and Report Cards to Support the Whole Child

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The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015, reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. ESSA created an opportunity to broaden accountability beyond traditional subjects, such as math, to potentially focus on health and wellness in schools. States could select health and wellness-related indicators, and identify strategies More

Food Environment Near Schools and Body weight-A Systematic Review of Associations by race/ethnicity, Gender, Grade, and Socio-Economic Factors

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Previous research reported modest associations between food environments near schools and adiposity among children overall. The associations within sociodemographic subgroups have not been synthesized. This review assessed the evidence on the associations between food environments near schools and childhood obesity within different demographic and socio-economic subgroups. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched to identify studies More

2020 Rapid Health Impact Assessment on USDA Proposed Changes to School Nutrition Standards

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More than 21.8 million school-age children receive free or reduced-price school lunch and 12.6 million children receive free or reduced-price breakfast each day. Since updated nutrition standards for school meals, snack foods, and beverages have been implemented following passage of the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a growing body of evidence shows their effectiveness in More

Executive Summary: 2020 Rapid Health Impact Assessment on USDA Proposed Changes to School Nutrition Standards

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More than 21.8 million school-age children receive free or reduced-price school lunch and 12.6 million children receive free or reduced-price breakfast each day. Since updated nutrition standards for school meals, snack foods, and beverages have been implemented following passage of the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a growing body of evidence shows their effectiveness in More