Building a Healthier Future Through School Health Programs

National Leadership

Collaborative strategies are necessary to promote healthy communities, healthy schools, and healthy children within our nation. In recognition of the need for sustained and coordinated federal efforts to strengthen and improve the education and health of school-age children and youth, the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture established the Interagency Committee on School Health in 1994. The committee, which meets twice each year, is co-chaired by the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education in the Department of Education, and the Under Secretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Affairs in the Department of Agriculture. Committee members represent the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Indian Health Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as the Departments of Education, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services.

The National Coordinating Committee on School Health (NCCSH) was established in 1994 by the Secretaries of the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Shortly after NCCSH was created, the Department of Agriculture added its support. The NCCSH was formed to link federal departments with national nongovernmental organizations to support quality coordinated school health programs in our nation's schools. Its responsibilities include providing national leadership for the promotion of quality school health programs; improving communications, collaboration, and information sharing among national organizations; identifying local, state, and federal barriers to the development and implementation of effective school health programs; and collecting and disseminating information that can help to improve the effectiveness of these programs. Membership has grown to approximately 75 national organizations.

Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities (HSHC) was established by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 1994 to encourage the development of new, comprehensive, full-time, school-based primary care programs that serve children at high risk for health problems through treatment and services such as counseling, mental and dental health services, nutrition, and health education. HSHC funds 76 organizations, including community health centers, local health departments, hospitals, private, nonprofit health providers, and university medical centers, to establish new school-based health centers. The program has established a number of collaborative linkages with other government agencies and private organizations that enable the school-based centers to strengthen the quality of care that they provide. For more information, visit the HSHC Web site: bphc.hrsa.gov/programs/HSHCProgramInfo.htm.

HRSA also supports the National Adolescent Health Information Center (NAHIC), which is based within the University of California, San Francisco’s Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and Institute for Health Policy Studies. NAHIC’s goal is to improve the health of adolescents by serving as a national resource for adolescent health information and research and to assure the integration, synthesis, coordination and dissemination of adolescent health-related information. In all of its activities, NAHIC emphasizes the needs of special populations who are more adversely affected by the current changes in the social environment for youth and their families. For more information, visit the NAHIC Web site at http://nahic.ucsf.edu/.

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Challenges Ahead

Because every child needs sound preparation for a healthy future, school health programs should be established in all U.S. schools. Convincing children and adolescents to adopt behaviors that reduce their risk for chronic diseases is a continual challenge and should be a goal of all public health programs. Achieving this goal requires that state leaders in public health and education accept the opportunity and responsibility to effectively implement and improve school health programs.

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