Structures for a Comprehensive School Health Program

Preventing health problems, promoting health literacy, and supporting students’ success at school through a comprehensive, collaborative approach may involve significant changes at some schools. However, working with families and the community, schools can establish an effective system for preventing health problems and promoting health literacy.

This program envisions a comprehensive school health program based on the assumption, strongly supported by research and practice, that the teaching of health information alone is insufficient for children and youths to achieve health literacy. Effective health education must combine scientifically based information with approaches that develop positive health attitudes and behaviors and incorporate a wide range of learning styles, activities, and teaching strategies. It engages children on many different levels to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that will make health education not the presentation of a set of facts to be studied, memorized, and quickly forgotten but a meaningful part of children’s lives. In addition, it relates health information to a variety of disciplines and learning situations.

For health education to be made meaningful, systems must be in place that support effective health education and make health an important priority in the school. The school’s approach must be well planned, must be coherent, must be implemented consistently, and must be supported by all adults in the school. All the components of the school’s program must be mutually supportive.

This district-wide approach is referred to as comprehensive school health program with eight components:

^{Health
Education}
^{Physical
Education}
^{Nutrition
Services}
^{Health Services}
^{Counseling,
Psychological and Social Services}
^{Healthy School
Environment}
^{Health
Promotion for Staff}
^{Family/Community
Involvement}

^{These eight components
work together to develop and reinforce health-related knowledge, skills,
attitudes, and behaviors and make health an important priority at the school.
The components are linked in a mutually supportive, cooperative system focusing
on children’s health issues and the development of health literacy. Each of
the eight components is a critical link in the overall support system for school
health and is integrally related to the other components. Some of the components
focus on education, others on services, and still others on the school
environment. When they are planned and implemented in a supportive and
consistent manner, the eight components achieve far more in promoting health
literacy than is possible without a coherent, integrated system.

Health
education and physical education focus on helping students gain the
knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed for health literacy and on
engendering the attitudes they also need for lifelong healthy behaviors.
Health education is the primary focus of this program. Physical education
taught within the context of a coordinated school health program is the
subject of its own framework. Readers seeking detailed information about the
design of exemplary physical education curriculum should consult the
Physical Education Framework.

Health
services, nutrition services, and psychological and counseling services
reinforce the knowledge, skills, and behaviors taught in health education
and physical education; help families support and promote students’
health; and provide students with opportunities to practice healthy
behaviors. For example, school nutrition services support healthy growth and
development by providing nutritious foods to students. School nutrition
services also offer students opportunities to apply knowledge.}