CDC Healthy Schools Highlights

CDC Announcements CDC Healthy Schools offers many resources for parents and school staff to support children’s health and learning. More information can be found in our Back to School and Parents for Healthy Schools’ web features. The Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network developed Wellness Teams Work! A Guide for Putting Wellness Policies into Practice in Schools. This guide summarizes the evidence supporting the importance of active school wellness teams in promoting wellness policy implementation in schools. Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also called concussion, affects millions of children each year. In a recent CDC study, about 2.5 million high school students self-reported having had a sports- or physical activity-related concussion within the past 12 months. CDC’s Pediatric mTBI Guideline seeks to improve the care of this injury. CDC has developed free tools to help health care providers, like school nurses, use the Pediatric mTBI Guideline and resources for patients and their families. The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health will host a free webinar October 24 from 1:30–3:00 pm, ET, titled, Interventions That Work: Preventing Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Among Youth. The webinar will highlight the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommendation for Primary Prevention Interventions to Reduce Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Among Youth and the systematic review evidence on which it was based. Get information about the webinar and REGISTER NOW! State Highlights More than 300,000 Wisconsin students are benefiting from comprehensive school physical activity programs, with opportunities to get 60 minutes of physical activity per day. The Core 4+ Strategies program promotes effective, low-cost, and easy to adopt strategies such as increasing active minutes of physical education in class, providing active recess, and promoting family and community physical activity outside of school. Learn more about Wisconsin’s success. Non-Governmental Organizations Highlights The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors has released Sharing Success: A Step-by-Step Guide for Communicating School Health Achievements. This success story guide outlines principles for creating messages and provides real-world examples, a communications planning worksheet, and additional resources. The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) has released new videos to encourage adoption and strengthen implementation of the WSCC model. The videos are designed for various audiences, including state education and health departments, schools, and partners. The videos feature three school districts that support and implement the WSCC model and focus on three themes: Administrator Support and Commitment for WSCC approach, Ease of WSCC implementation, and WSCC Benefits and Impact on Student Learning and Health. To view the new videos and learn more about the featured school districts, visit chronicdisease.org/shvideos. Professional Development Practices Professional development (PD) is a consciously designed process that strengthens how your staff obtains and retains knowledge, skills, and attitudes. PD practices use research and best practice to provide the best conditions for implementation. PD practices can help increase your skill-building capacity in improving health and educational outcomes among young people. Is it time to look at your organization’s PD practices to ensure a systematic process is in place? Check out this helpful tip sheet!

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CDC Healthy Schools focuses on the well-being of children, teens, and adults in schools and develops effective tools and recommendations to ensure students are healthy and ready to learn. To achieve this goal, we support state and local education and health agencies and national organizations to implement school health policies and practices. For more information, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/index.htm.