School districts
offered sample policy on nutrition and fitness
OLYMPIA —
The Washington State School Directors’ Association (WSSDA) today issued a sample policy for local school boards to use in guiding their districts’ efforts to promote good student nutrition and physical fitness.
The sample policy was developed under a new state law that requires all districts in the state to establish a policy on nutrition and health by August of next year. As part of the law, WSSDA was directed to develop a sample that districts could use in crafting or augmenting their local policies.
"This policy goes hand-in-hand with the work of school directors to promote student learning and close the achievement gap," said WSSDA President Anita Boyum, a member of the Ellensburg School Board. "Students who eat well and are healthy are better equipped to learn in the classroom."
The sample policy was crafted with the assistance of the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state Department of Health, and the Washington Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, with input from a number of other agencies and organizations.
The goal of the law and the sample policy is to "provide students access to nutritious food, provide opportunities for physical activity and developmentally appropriate exercise, and provide accurate information related to these topics." To that end, the policy recommends that districts:
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Adopt a comprehensive curriculum on health, fitness and nutrition consistent with the state’s essential learning requirements.
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Ensure that a variety of healthy food choices be available whenever food is sold or served on district property or at district-sponsored events.
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Regulate the sale or serving of foods or snacks high in fat, sodium, or added sugars.
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Ensure that school breakfasts and lunches meet state and federal nutritional standards.
The policy suggests that food and beverages of "minimal nutritional value" — as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — should not be sold or served in schools until at least 30 minutes after the end of the last lunch period. It also recommends that vending machines dispense only nutritionally healthy food and beverages.
The policy incorporates an existing state requirement that students in grades 1–8 complete an average of 100 minutes per week of physical education. As part of that requirement, the policy suggests, each middle school student should receive 20 minutes per day of aerobic activity in his or her target heart rate zone. It also recommends that elementary students be provided daily recess periods that offer "unstructured but supervised active play."
The policy also emphasizes that all high schools are required, under state rule, to offer a one-credit physical education course for each grade level. High school students must obtain two credits in health and fitness to satisfy state graduation requirements.
Under state law, schools boards must have a nutrition and physical fitness policy in place by Aug. 1, 2005. Federal law also requires districts to have a "local wellness policy" for students by the beginning of the 2006-07 school year.
School boards have the option of adopting WSSDA’s sample policy as written or using it to create or modify their own policies, said Marilee Scarbrough, WSSDA’s Director of Policy and Legal Services.
"The ultimate decisions lie with the locally elected directors who know what will work best in their communities," she said. "We fully expect that local boards will follow their own policy-making process, conduct their own hearings, and establish their own individual policies."
Answering the Legislature’s request, WSSDA offered several recommendations on implementing nutrition and fitness policies in schools. The association noted that districts will need additional funding to pay for staffing, equipment and curriculum development. It also suggested a recognition program for successful nutrition programs in schools, tax incentives for farm-to-school programs, and marketing support for vocational education programs and school stores to encourage consumer purchases of healthy food options.
WSSDA Executive Director Martharose Laffey noted that it will take an effort on everyone’s part to address the problem of childhood obesity.
"Good nutrition and exercise doesn’t begin and end at the schoolhouse door," said Laffey. "We hope families and their communities will join us in teaching children to make healthy choices all the time, not just in school."
The sample policy is available on the WSSDA Web site (www.wssda.org)
in the Policy and Legal Services
section.
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