School Health

Consider this:

Behaviors such as tobacco use, poor eating habits, and physical inactivity greatly increase a child’s risk of getting cancer in adulthood.
These and other harmful habits are often well established by the age of 13 years.
Almost two-thirds of cancers could be prevented if these behaviors were never started.

Why Is the American Cancer Society Committed to School Health?

It's simple. The earlier children learn how to prevent illness, the healthier they will be.

The information and skills needed to make healthy decisions are learned during childhood and adolescence. Schools have a critical role to play in health education and can reinforce learning that takes place at home and in the community. It's far easier to establish and maintain healthy habits learned early in life than to change unhealthy habits during adulthood.

The 15,000 school systems in the United States serve over 50 million children and youth—by far the largest and most organized system to reach our youngsters. Furthermore, the school system's goal to enrich the lives of students makes it a natural avenue for giving young people the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to start, stop, or change health behaviors.

For those reasons, the American Cancer Society has embraced school health as one of the most promising means of ensuring healthy children today and decreasing cancer illness and death in the future.

What Is School Health All About?

School health isn’t just about what’s taught in the classroom. It’s about creating policies and programs that promote a healthy school environment, thereby reinforcing healthful living. It’s about reinforcing healthy habits every day and every year that kids are in school.

Children's health and education are jeopardized by risky behaviors such as using tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, failure to use seat belts, carrying weapons, lack of physical activity, and poor diet.

A good school health program addresses such risky behaviors through education, environment and policy implementation, including:

Quality health education in the classroom (K-12)
Healthy food choices in the school cafeteria and vending machines
Regular physical education that promotes lifelong fitness through regular physical activity.
Policies that prohibit tobacco use by students and faculty

What Is the Society Doing to Improve School Health?

The American Cancer Society has identified three main strategies to help schools develop programs to improve students’ health and to reduce cancer risk.

Strategy 1: Advocate for Coordinated School Health. ACS supports efforts at the National, state and local levels that advocate for coordination of the multiple school health program and policy initiatives. As an example, classroom learning about good nutrition must be supported by opportunities to practice healthy food selection. ACS recognizes the complexities of the school health program and environment and works with other school health and health education organizations to advance school health awareness and support.

Strategy 2: Support and Develop School Health Councils. ACS recognizes the role of the School Health Council as an essential structure in school districts. The School Health Council is made up of members representing both school and community who assist school districts by making health related program and policy recommendations. ACS distributes resources to assist in the development and maintenance of school health councils.

Strategy 3: Advocate for Local School Health Coordinators. It’s our hope that every school district in the country has a School Health Coordinator—a trained professional in school health who will help the school district work to improve the health of its students. ACS has developed a School Health Leadership Institute designed to build the leadership skills necessary for school health coordinators and other school health team members to build strong school health programs.

For more information about School Health, call us toll free at 1-800-ACS-2345.

Revised: 5/4/2006