Welcome to the Parents for Healthy Schools course, part of the “Training Tools for Healthy Schools” e-Learning series.
In this self-paced course, there are several ways to access the training materials. You may select a specific chapter or chapter section by clicking on a title. You may view the course in its entirety by simply clicking on the “play” button in the video window and then clicking “next” to proceed to the next video. Click “back” to view the previous video. An “Active Child” icon will appear on the screen periodically to alert you to a tip for more information. You may access more information by clicking on questions or resources in the Go Further section. A full-course download is also available.
At the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to evaluate it and download a Certificate of Completion.
The purpose of the Parents for Healthy Schools course is to provide resources to motivate and educate parents to be part of creating a healthy school environment.
This course will provide guidance on how to:
Parents play an important role in supporting the health and well-being of children and adolescents at home and at school. When parents are engaged in school activities, their children get better grades, choose healthier behaviors, and have better social skills.
Parents for Healthy Schools is a set of resources that school groups can use to engage parents in helping to create healthy school environments for students.
School groups that work with parents can use these resources to:
Parents for Healthy Schools focuses on three important aspects of a healthy school environment:
This initiative is a collaborative effort between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Action for Healthy Kids® public-private partnership with conceptual, technical, and editorial assistance from others across CDC and experts from the fields of health and education, including the:
Parents for Healthy Schools offers a set of resources that school groups can use to engage parents in helping schools create healthy school environments for students.
Parents for Healthy Schools: A Guide for Getting Parents Involved from K‒12 provides an overview of a healthy school environment, an overview of the framework for engaging parents in school health, and suggestions for how to use accompanying resources. Use the guide to think through the process for delivering the PowerPoint presentation and Ideas for Parents.
Parents for Healthy Schools: Making a Difference in Your Child’s School PowerPoint Presentation makes the case for a healthy school environment, explains what needs to be changed, and shows how parents can help take action. This PowerPoint presentation educates parents about why addressing health in school is important and about some challenges schools face related to nutrition, physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions. The PowerPoint presentation also educates parents about how they can help schools improve the school nutrition environment and services, increase opportunities for students to be physically active, and provide services for students who have chronic health conditions. Deliver the PowerPoint presentation to parents through PTA/PTO meetings, school wellness committees, or other groups, such as the National Network of Partnership Schools and collect feedback using the evaluation form.
Ideas for Parents are short informational sheets about the school nutrition environment and services, physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions. Ideas for Parents are designed specifically for parents and give them a quick overview of the health topic, key questions they should ask their children’s school, and ideas for actions they can take to support that topic. Give parents Ideas for Parents to share suggestions on how they can become involved in making changes.
Check-In Questions track progress in engaging parents based on the actions in the PowerPoint presentation and Ideas for Parents. Look for signs of change and collect parent feedback using the Check-In Questions.
Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health defines and describes engagement between parents and school staff and identifies specific strategies for parent engagement in school health.
Promoting Parent Engagement in School Health: A Facilitator’s Guide for Staff Development can help schools develop a plan for parent engagement. This plan should include opportunities for parents to help create a supportive environment for nutrition, physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions.
Every school or district will be at a different point in the work of parent engagement in school health. These resources were developed so that your school or district can begin or strengthen the effort at any stage to motivate parents to become involved in creating a healthy school environment.
Schools are an ideal place for students to learn about and practice healthy behaviors.
Schools are an important setting to promote healthy eating and physical activity and to address chronic health conditions. More than 95% of young people in the United States are in school for 13 critical years of their development.
The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model, which was developed by ASCD and CDC, provides a framework for addressing school health policies, practices, and programs to ensure that students are healthy and ready to learn.
There are ten components in this model. Parents for Healthy Schools focuses on three of these components: nutrition environment and services, physical education and physical activity, and health services. School leaders should address their policies, processes, and practices across these components to help students be safe, healthy, challenged, supported, and engaged. In addition, this model depicts the need for the school, family, and community to work together to ensure students are healthy and academically successful.
Healthy students do better in school. Research supports the connection between students being physically active, eating healthy foods, and managing their chronic health conditions, with improved test scores, grades, school attendance, and classroom behaviors, such as being focused and not getting into trouble.
When schools follow practices to support eating healthy foods, being physically active, and managing chronic health conditions, they see improved educational outcomes and improved overall health and wellness of their students.
With the focus being on these three components of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model, the goal is for schools to:
Involving parents in school health activities can be an important strategy for getting schools to provide healthy school nutrition environments and services, opportunities for physical activity throughout the school day, and health services to support for students with chronic health conditions.
The school nutrition environment refers to the foods and beverages that are available to students throughout the school day, as well as information and messages about food and nutrition that students encounter on school grounds. A healthy school nutrition environment provides students with access to nutritious and appealing foods and beverages, consistent messages about healthy eating, and opportunities to learn about and practice making smart nutrition choices.
The CDC and other national organizations recommend that schools:
The goal is to ensure that students have access to healthy food choices and messages that reinforce these choices during the school day.
The CDC recommends that schools promote access to and participation in school meals, including the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. Schools should ensure that these meals meet or exceed federal nutrition standards.
Schools should also ensure that foods and beverages sold outside of the school meal programs meet or exceed the Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards. These standards are for foods and beverages sold through vending machines, school stores, fundraisers, and snack bars, These items are sometimes referred to as "competitive foods" because they can compete with participation in the school meal programs.
Although the Smart Snacks standards do not address foods and beverages served for student rewards or school celebrations, some states, school districts, and schools have established additional nutrition standards for these items. The CDC recommends that schools encourage healthy options be made available for school parties, celebrations, and other events.
CDC encourages schools to provide students with access to drinking water throughout the day, in addition to having water made available during school meal periods.
Schools should provide opportunities for students to learn about healthy eating through nutrition education classes and other programs including school gardens and farm to school activities. Schools can ensure that students receive consistent messages about healthy eating by only marketing and promoting healthy foods and beverages.
The federal Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that children and adolescents do 60 minutes or more of physical activity daily. The CDC and other national organizations recommend a comprehensive, schoolwide approach to physical activity that provides opportunities for students to be physically active before, during, and after the school day. This is called a Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program.
A Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program has five components:
The foundation of a Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program is for schools to have physical education classes that help students gain the knowledge and skills needed to establish and maintain physically active lifestyles throughout childhood and adolescence and into adulthood.
In addition to physical education classes, recess and classroom physical activity breaks are other opportunities for students to be physically active during the school day and help students get 60 minutes of daily physical activity. Recess is a planned time within the school day for free play and supervised physical activity. Classroom physical activity includes any physical activity done in the classroom during the school day, in which teachers incorporate physical activity into planned academic lessons and/or provide short breaks in class.
Schools can also provide opportunities for physical activity before and after school to help students achieve the 60 minutes of physical activity they need each day. Before and after school physical activity could include walking and biking to school programs, physical activity clubs, intramural programs, informal play on school grounds, physical activity in before- and after-school care programs and interscholastic sports. Schools can encourage physical activity before and after school by allowing students, their families, and others in the community to use school facilities such as the track, gym, or fields. In addition other organizations can establish a joint use or shared use agreement with schools that allows them to use school facilities for physical activity opportunities or events.
During the past few decades, chronic health conditions have increased among children. As a consequence, demand for school health services has risen dramatically as more complex needs are being addressed.
School health services staff support students with chronic health conditions by providing day-to-day, comprehensive health care management for all students, many of whom would not otherwise have access to health care. They can assist students with health concerns, including first aid, emergency care, and managing chronic health conditions, such as asthma or diabetes. They also promote disease prevention and wellness through vaccines, encourage proper nutrition and physical activity, and provide health education for students and parents. These services are also designed to facilitate access or referrals to community health care providers. Health services connect school staff, students, families, community, and health care providers to promote the health care of students in a healthy and safe school environment.
School nurses play a key role in managing chronic health conditions at school. The school nurse coordinates and conducts assessment, planning, and implementation of individualized health care plans for students with chronic health conditions to safely and effectively manage those conditions during the school day. The National Association of School Nurses states that every school-aged child deserves a registered nurse, and every school should have a full-time school nurse all day, every day. For children who have chronic health conditions, having access to student health services is critical.
Now that we have developed an understanding of some of the major components of a healthy school environment, let's review.
If parents are engaged in school activities, policies, and practices, they can impact the success of a healthy school environment. Parent engagement in schools is defined as parents and school staff working together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of children and adolescents.
Research shows that parent engagement in schools is closely linked to better student behavior, higher academic achievement, and enhanced social skills. Parent engagement also makes it more likely that children and adolescents will avoid unhealthy behaviors.
It is important for schools and districts to understand their current capacity for parent engagement in school health activities. The School Health Index tool, developed by CDC, can help schools identify strengths and weaknesses in current policies and practices. The Index can also be used to identify where improvements can be made to maximize parent engagement.
As described in CDC's Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health, there are three aspects of the parent engagement framework in schools:
Schools need to connect and build positive relationships with parents before they can effectively engage them in school health activities.
The tone for a positive relationship is set by having clear vision and mission statements about the school nutrition environment and services, physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions that include parent engagement.
Schools and school groups can ask parents how they would like to be involved in school activities, especially those related to their children's health and school's health activities, services, and programs. Parents may have preferences for connecting with the school, based on their children's needs.
Schools can create a welcoming, trusting, and inclusive school environment where parents feel comfortable in participating in school activities for nutrition, physical activity, and chronic health conditions, as well as valued and able to offer their expertise. Professional development can help staff and other groups learn how to engage parents in school activities.
Schools can connect directly with parents by sending communications, like newsletters or e-mails, to parents to promote the school meal programs, healthy fundraisers, healthy celebrations and events, physical education programs, and other opportunities to be physically active.
Providing staff development for how to engage parents in school activities for nutrition, physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions can help staff and other groups learn how to effectively connect with and involve parents in the healthy school environment.
School staff can increase parent engagement by demonstrating, through positive connections with parents, how their children's health and education can be enhanced by their involvement in school health activities.
These activities can positively impact the school environment and can help make it a healthy place for their children to learn.
Schools should offer a variety of opportunities for parents to engage in school health activities.
According to CDC's Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health based on the research of Joyce Epstein, there are six types of involvement that schools can use to engage parents:
Providing Parenting Support:
Schools can build parents' leadership, decision making, and parenting skills through educational opportunities, such as classes or workshops. These activities enable parents to develop positive health attitudes and behaviors to support students and help build healthy home and school environments.
Communicating with Parents:
Parents can become engaged through clear, two-way communication channels between them and the school or district. Schools can send communications to parents, and parents can communicate with teachers, administrators, counselors, and other staff about their children's health.
Providing Volunteer Opportunities:
Schools can offer a variety of ways for parents to become involved to maximize engagement and meet their different needs. Inviting parents to volunteer in schools can enrich health and physical education classes, improve the delivery of health services, and help create safe and healthy environments for students.
Supporting Learning at Home:
Schools can engage parents and students in health education activities at home. Engaging parents in homework assignments or other health activities at home increases the likelihood of students receiving consistent messages at home and in school.
Encouraging Parents to be Part of Decision Making:
Schools can include parents as participants in school decisions, school activities, and advocacy activities through the PTO or PTA, school health council or team, school committees, and other school groups and organizations.
Collaborating with the Community:
Schools can seek help from the community by engaging parents in school health programs and activities. When schools coordinate with community organizations, parents can more easily obtain useful information and resources and have access to community programs and services.
The Parents for Healthy Schools resources can provide a starting point to motivate and educate parents to get involved in school health programs and activities. Specifically, school groups can encourage parents to make a difference in their child's school health environment by putting suggestions from the Parents for Healthy Schools: Making a Difference in Your Child's School PowerPoint Presentation and Ideas for Parents into practice.
The following videos will highlight some suggestions from Ideas for Parents in order to engage parents about what they can do to support a healthy school environment for nutrition, physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions.
Parents can support a healthy school nutrition environment and services by:
Other ways parents can get involved in a healthy school nutrition environment are:
If parents have questions about any food or beverage items, they can learn more by communicating directly with school staff. Sometimes food service directors do not market all the changes they are making (for example using whole grain bread or pizza dough).
Parents can help raise funds to upgrade or install new water dispensers or water fountains at the school and work with school staff and students to develop a campaign to encourage drinking water during the day.
In addition, parents can communicate with each other about the importance of the availability of water and healthy food options during the school day and during school events.
Parents can play an important role in getting schools to provide opportunities for physical activity before, during, and after the school day. Examples of these opportunities include daily physical education, recess, classroom physical activity, physical activity clubs, and intramural sports.
Parents can help by participating on the team or committee for comprehensive school physical activity programs, and they can encourage the school leadership to support this effort. They can be the voice at school board meetings and school health council meetings.
Parents can also volunteer their time to help with physical education, recess, and classroom physical activity.
Parents can offer to help with activities, such as special physical activity programs, field trips and the annual field day. They can also ask the physical education teacher for exercises and physical activities to do at home with their children to keep up or improve fitness levels.
In the classroom, parents can encourage teachers to integrate physical activity into planned academic lessons and provide short breaks of physical activity, and they can offer to help coordinate some of these activities.
These suggestions align with a comprehensive school physical activity program and can help contribute to the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity students should have each day.
Parents should be aware of the available school health services and how such services can benefit their children. Parents can play an integral role in managing chronic health conditions by becoming involved in the school's efforts to promote disease prevention and wellness. They can do this by ensuring appropriate vaccination status and encouraging proper nutrition and physical activity for their children.
Parents can advocate for a school nurse and for school health services that can assist all students with health concerns, including first aid and emergency care. Parents should give permission to the school nurse to communicate with the family's health care provider and update any changes, as needed.
It is important for parents and families to be engaged, especially if the student has a chronic health condition. By working together with the school nurse and other appropriate school officials, the family can help with the development of an individualized health care plan, assist with setting goals, and provide necessary medications.
Keeping parents engaged may be difficult, especially as children grow into adolescence and move on to middle and high school. Schools need to identify ways to sustain parent engagement by overcoming challenges that keep parents from being connected and engaged in school health activities.
Here are six common challenges to sustaining parent engagement in school health, as well as some ideas schools and groups can use to overcome them.
1. Schedule conflicts
If parents are unable to attend school health meetings or activities because of schedule conflicts, this challenge could be addressed by scheduling meetings and activities to match varying parent schedules or provide alternative ways for parents to get the information.
2. Lack of transportation
If parents cannot attend school health meetings and activities because of a lack of transportation, schools can try to bring the meetings to them by having an online meeting option available.
3. Uncomfortable at school activities and events
Parents may be uncomfortable at school health meetings and activities as a result of negative experiences when they were in school, unfamiliarity with the school culture, or other factors. Schools can try to overcome this discomfort by introducing them to school activities and school staff in nonthreatening ways.
4. Unfamiliarity and language barriers
Because of language barriers or unfamiliarity with school-specific terms, parents could have trouble understanding information provided at school health activities and meetings. If possible, schools should provide translation services for non-English speaking parents to help overcome those barriers.
5. Inexperienced or untrained school staff
School staff may not be experienced or trained to work with parents and have trouble sustaining relationships and parent engagement efforts. If this is the case, schools can provide professional development opportunities for school staff that focus on strengthening parent engagement.
6. Lack of financial support for parent engagement
If there is difficulty sustaining school administrative or financial support for parent engagement, long-term school staff can encourage parents to speak to school administrators about the positive impact of engaging parents in the health of students and the school.
To ensure the sustainability of parent engagement, it is important for schools to have a dedicated team or committee that oversees this work. Individual schools and school districts should determine what actions are most feasible and appropriate, based on the needs of the school and parents, school level, and available resources. Schools should also evaluate their efforts to increase parent engagement in school health to learn which actions have the greatest impact. The Check-In Questions are a great resource to track progress in parent engagement.
Now, let's take a moment to check your knowledge on the parent engagement framework and on what parents can do to support a healthy school environment by answering a few questions.
States. districts, schools, and groups that work with parents can help parents by employing many of the strategies and ideas provided in the resources for Parents for Healthy Schools.
What are some next steps that states or districts can take?
What are some next steps schools or school groups can take?
Using these resources, schools and parents can work together to prioritize a list of school health activities and events.
Additional actions anyone can do include:
You should now understand:
Now, let's do an activity to highlight some possible next steps you can take to implement the Parents for Healthy Schools resources.
Thank you for participating in the Parents for Healthy Schools course.
Please take a few moments to let us know about your experience by clicking on the evaluation link in the video summary. Your feedback is very important, and we value your opinion.
Finally, you can print a Certificate of Completion by clicking on the certificate link in the video summary.
We hope you have enjoyed participating in the Parents for Healthy Schools course in the Training Tools for Healthy Schools e-Learning series.