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A coordinated approach to school health is a powerful way to reinforce healthy
behaviors and empower students with the knowledge, skills, and judgment to help them
make smart choices in life. However, schools cannot single-handedly address youths’
health-related needs. Creating a school/community environment that truly allows youths
to reach their greatest potential can be accomplished only by strong partnerships
among youths, families, schools, local government, faith-based organizations,
businesses, local health agencies, and others. Districts that successfully implement the
coordinated school health model designate a staff person to be the school health
coordinator to provide leadership and institute a school health council with a broad base
of school, community, and parental involvement. Recommendations on achieving this
goal may be found in Building Infrastructure for Coordinated School Health—California’s
Blueprint, a report published by the California Department of Education (CDE). The
Blueprint is available on the Coordinated School Health Web site at
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/cs/documents/blueprintfinal.pdf.
For more information on coordinated school health, contact the School Health
Connections/Healthy Start Office, at (916) 319-0914. Additional information is also
available on the Coordinated School Health Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/cs.
Healthy Start
The Healthy Start Support Services for Children Act (Healthy Start Initiative) provides
comprehensive, school-community integrated services and activities to improve the
lives of children, youths, and families. Collaborative planning and operational grants are
awarded to local educational agencies and their collaborative partners for locally
coordinated, school-linked services. The services include health and dental care, mental
health counseling, family support and parenting education, academic support, health
education, safety and violence prevention, youth development, employment
preparation, and others.
Collaborative planning grants of $50,000 are awarded over a two-year period, and
operational grants provide $400,000 for up to a five-year period. The grant awards
depend upon annual appropriations under the Budget Act. Since its inception in
1991-92, Healthy Start has provided 823 planning grants and 647 operational grants,
benefiting more than two million children and their families throughout California.
The results of statewide evaluations for the past several years show increases in test
scores, improvements in children’s classroom behavior, and greater parent involvement
in Healthy Start schools. Findings from a 1999 evaluation of Healthy Start showed that
test scores for schools in the lowest quartile improved substantially. Reading scores for
the lowest performing elementary schools increased by 25 percent, and math scores
increased by 50 percent. Individual students in the lowest quartile showed similar
improvement. A major goal of Healthy Start is to build capacity at the school site to
sustain these supports and services with other resources when the grant has ended.
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