Examining Policies Providing Access to Free Water in Schools and the Health Impact of an Alternative to Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

This award will support a natural experiment that will (1) examine the change in free drinking water access in Food Service Areas in California public schools from before to after Senate Bill 1413/Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act implementation; (2) assess changes in the proportion of schools with excellent water access and barriers and facilitators to More

The Michigan Healthy School Action Tools Process Generates Improvements in School Nutrition Policies and Practices, and Student Dietary Intake

The Michigan Healthy School Action Tools (HSAT) is an online self-assessment and action planning process for schools seeking to improve their health policies and practices. This study evaluated whether undertaking the Michigan HSAT process and receiving assistance from a facilitator and a small amount of grant funding resulted in (1) improvements in school nutrition practices More

Influence of School Competitive Food and Beverage Policies on Obesity, Consumption, and Availability

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an interim final rule containing nationwide standards for all competitive foods and beverages (CF&Bs). This review examines the influence of state laws and school district-level CF&B policies on student body mass index (BMI) and weight outcomes, consumption, and availability of CF&Bs in order to provide insight into More

Tapping Into Water: Key Considerations for Achieving Excellence in School Drinking Water Access

This paper examines free drinking water access in California public schools. Researchers conducted cross-sectional interviews with administrators from 240 California schools from May to November 2011 to examine the proportion of schools that met excellent water access criteria (i.e., location, density, type, maintenance, and appeal of water sources), school level characteristics associated with excellent water More

Evaluating School Wellness Policies Following Implementation of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010: Updating the Wellness School Assessment Tool (WellSAT)

The primary aim of this project is to revise and update the content and format of the WellSAT (Wellness School Assessment Tool, www.wellsat.org), an online quantitative measure for evaluating the quality of school wellness policies. Originally launched in 2009, the website has had thousands of visitors across all 50 states, and is used by policy-makers, More

Observations of Drinking Water Access in School Food Service Areas Before Implementation of Federal and State School Water Policy, California, 2011

This article discusses the results of a study that examined the provision of water and student water consumption in food service areas (FSA) in a random sample of San Francisco, California Bay Area schools. Barriers to and strategies for implementing federal and state drinking water requirements were also examined. Researchers found that 14 of 24 More