They are promising to keep closer tabs on student lunch trays, pull sugary treats from vending machines and classroom celebrations, and encourage more pulse-raising activities within the school day.
The nation’s public schools are obliged to adopt nutrition and exercise objectives before classes resume in the fall. A federal law that took effect on July 1 requires the written wellness policies.
"Some school districts and school buildings have already made a lot of necessary alterations. However, there are some schools that have done nothing just due to the fact that they’ve never been required to," said Alicia Moag-Stahlberg, executive director of Action for Healthy Kids, a 50-state nonprofit network. "To be honest, schools that have never had this conversation are having it."
The law’s most important goal is straightforward: combating increasing rates of childhood obesity. According to the National School Boards Association, overweight children miss more schooldays than their average weight colleagues. Backers also claims that decreasing sugar in students’ diets results in greater concentration in the classroom.
Several states are making similar efforts through new laws and policies, and the federal law gives school boards wide latitude, which brings about enor,ous differences in their approaches.
In Tennessee’s Williamson County, for example, the widely worded policy runs twenty three lines; in Hampton, N.H., the five-page plan is so detailed that it indicates elementary students have "at least two colors other than white and brown as part of their lunch meal."
Committees consisting of administrators, teachers, parents and students are looking well beyond the cafeteria for methods of promoting healthier eating habits and more physical activity. In St. Paul, students can find water, fruit juice and milk in vending machines that used to dispense soda. In Farmington, Utah, schools are holding recess before lunch so pupils don’t give short shrift to their meals in the race to the playground.
Teachers in Cape Girardeau, Mo., will come across limitations on goodies they can give out in their classrooms. Lollipops and sodas will be strictly forbidden.
Rhonda Dunham, a headmaster at an elementary school in the district, will try other rewards for learners who meet homework objectives or present good behavior. One plan is to set up elegant lunches, where pupils get specially prepared meals at tables with linen cloths, china and glassware. "They feel a bit more grownup that way," she explained.
In the northwestern Minnesota district of Perham Dent classroom candy has lost favor as well. "The truth is, one Jolly Rancher is not bad, but thirteen years of several Jolly Ranchers daily is a bad habit to learn," explained superintendent Tamara Uselman. Her district is introducing more movement into the school day as well. One of the geography teachers is currently building up stations in her classroom, therefore children are on the move every twenty minutes.
A lot of school districts are making clear that recess is precious exercise time and shouldn’t be withheld as a way of penalizing. Whilst school leaders and health supporters generally laud the law’s intent, concerns still exist.
Congress did not grant schools any money to implement the policies or offer compensation for the potential loss of vending sales proceeds.
An Illinois education panel noticed one more obstacle: Schools have problems with setting aside time from their other pressing priorities such as the federal No Child Left Behind law, which carries consequences if the learners do not demonstrate progress in crucial subjects.
The wellness directive obliges school districts to evaluate progress. However, the consequences are not drawn from schools that don’t live up to the law. "I don’t think the federal government put enough teeth into this," Dunham, the elementary school principal said. "We are responsible basically only to ourselves. In some school districts, I could see this going by the wayside."
And never expect the wellness policies to bear fruit overnight. "It’s like eating an elephant," compared Brenda Greene, the National School Board Association’s director of school health programs. "You have to do it one bite at a time."
