CDC Healthy Schools Highlights

CDC Announcements

The CDC Virtual Healthy School is an online, interactive school that provides innovative learning experiences to help make your school healthier. While the Virtual Healthy School’s major themes are nutrition, physical education and physical activity, and the management of chronic health conditions (e.g., asthma, diabetes) in schools—the tool also includes examples of how to incorporate all 10 components of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. Explore the Virtual Healthy School and These New Updates: Updated the preschool classroom for children aged 3 to 5 years. Added New School Health Team conversations on health equity, family engagement, and how health affects academics. Added a new member to the Student Health Team.

The US Department of Health and Human Services recently released the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition. The guidelines outline the amounts and types of physical activity needed to maintain or improve overall health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. Key changes from the 1st edition include new guidance for preschool children aged 3 to 5 years, more evidence of the health benefits of physical activity, and a discussion of sedentary behavior, among others. The guidelines also highlight tested strategies that can be used to get all Americans to be active and move more. Additionally, the Move Your Way campaign resources are designed to help explain the guidelines to consumers. These resources include interactive tools, fact sheets, videos, and graphics that are available for communities, health professionals, and others to promote the health benefits of meeting the new recommendations, along with tips for how to help people become more active.

December 2–8 is National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW)! CDC and its partners chose December for NIVW to remind people that although the holiday season has begun, it is not too late to get a flu vaccine. As long as flu viruses are spreading and causing illness, vaccination should continue throughout the flu season to protect as many people as possible from the flu. People at high risk of serious flu complications include young children, pregnant women, people with certain chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or lung disease, and people aged 65 years or older.

State Highlights

• The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) launched the Healthy Districts/Schools Project. It identified eight high-need school districts in terms of health status, risk behaviors, and district capacity. The project uses a key strategy to “strengthen schools as the heart of health.” As a result, several school districts have changed their policies to increase recess or increase physical activity time. Read this state success story on our CDC Healthy Schools webpage.

Professional Development: How to Build a Training Cadre Meeting your organization’s many goals can be particularly challenging for just one person, or even a few individuals given other responsibilities. Building a training cadre is a key component of professional development. This toolkit explains the need for a training cadre to sustain an organization’s professional development goals, and it provides many resources to support these efforts.