NSBA Receives Award to Promote Coordinated School Health

June 10, 2011 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently awarded NSBA a new five-year cooperative agreement to promote Coordinated School Health (CSH) with school leaders and other decision makers and opinion leaders.  

Through the cooperative agreement, NSBA will work with and through its state associations to expand its continuum of school health information services, technical assistance, and collaborations among school board members, administrators, and others to: 1) Increase the engagement and effectiveness of education leaders to promote, develop and implement policies and practices that support CSH and improve education and health outcomes; and 2) Broaden and strengthen support for CSH to foster sustainability of effective policies and practices.  

The CSH model, an approach recommended by the CDC for improving students’ health and learning, has eight critical, interrelated components: health education; physical education; health services; mental health and social services; nutrition services; healthy and safe environment; family and community involvement; and staff wellness.  NSBA has been working with the CSH model since 1990, and last month, NSBA completed a five-year project to help school leaders understand the link between student health and learning and how the CSH model can be used to implement effective school health policies and practices.

In the first six months of the new project, NSBA will conduct strategic planning that will be informed and guided by a workgroup comprised of various stakeholders.  Following this process, NSBA will form a national cadre of school board members and administrators to help educate and mentor other state and district school leaders on policies and practices that support CSH.   

For more information, please contact schoolhealth@nsba.org.