Celebrate National Healthy Schools Day

April 3, 2009 – National Healthy Schools Day is April 27, 2009.  Sponsored by the National Healthy Schools Network, Inc. and the Coalition for Healthier Schools, this day promotes and celebrates healthy school environments that are conducive to learning and protect school occupants.  The day unites schools, parents, personnel, advocates, and agencies nationwide to promote healthy and green school environments for all children and school staff. 

National Healthy Schools Day is the first day of School Building Week, presenting a great opportunity for schools and school districts to 1) talk about children’s environmental health; 2) focus on school facility policies or practices that support children’s and employees’ health and safety, and promote healthy school environments; and 3) include several stakeholders such as school officials, children’s environmental health professionals, parents, and elected officials, among others. 

The day is also an excellent time for schools to adopt guiding principles of school environmental quality, including every child's and school employee's right to an environmentally safe and healthy learning environment that is clean and in good repair. 

There are several events that can be held to help celebrate this day including:

• A workshop or a panel discussion on green cleaning or school indoor air quality;
• A hearing on indoor air quality and asthma;
• Distribution of information related to these issues;
• A mayor/city council or governor/state legislature National Healthy Schools Day proclamation or new policy initiatives;  
• Demonstration of green cleaning practices and products; and
• A conference on the importance of healthy school environments for children’s health and learning.

Those celebrating can also write or visit school principals or facility directors to ask about cleaning and pest control products or school repair needs; learn how many children use asthma inhalers at school; walk around schools to identify any repairs that are needed and/or any health or safety problems that need attention; and write a letter to the editor of a newspaper on the importance of a healthy school. 

To help celebrate, the National Healthy Schools Day webpage includes a planning guide, a guide to green cleaning, a model proclamation, sample letters to the editor or school, and a checklist for healthy schools.  In addition, schools can register their event online and, once registered, have access to logos, a postcard template, a writeable activity/event flyer, and help with media to advertise the activity or event. 

To learn more about, National Healthy Schools Day, click here. For further information on School Building Week, click here.

Source: “National Healthy Schools Day Planning Guide, April 27, 2009.”