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New NASBE Database Tracks State School Health Policies Related to Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Model

  • 01/31/19

Alexandria, Va. — The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) is pleased to announce the redesign of its popular online resource, the Healthy Schools Database. The new version, now called the NASBE State Policy Database on School Health, aligns all existing state statutory and regulatory language on student health to the components of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s framework for school health promotion, known as the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model.

The WSCC model defines 10 important areas of a healthy school: health education; physical education and physical activity; nutrition environment and services; health services; counseling, psychological, and social services; social and emotional climate; physical environment; employee wellness; family engagement; and community involvement. Combined, these elements provide a road map for comprehensive policymaking that fully supports students’ well-being.

The NASBE State Policy Database on School Health is a product of NASBE’s partnership with Child Trends, the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and EMT Associates, Inc. The database documents state education policies and analyzes their alignment with WSCC. Made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Together for Healthy and Successful Schools Initiative, the database encompasses policies enacted as of September 2017 for 136 variables across the 10 WSCC domains, as well as a category capturing references to the WSCC model itself. Further information on methodology, a summary of findings, and profiles for each state can be found on Child Trends’s website. As state boards of education and others consider adoption of policies and processes that support the whole child, these resources will supply important information on existing statutes and best practices.

“NASBE first designed its health database over 10 years ago to help state policymakers learn from each other’s policies on student health and wellness,” says Robert Hull, NASBE’s president and CEO. “Over the years, researchers, advocates, health professionals, and the media have also depended on the database as a source for the latest information on health policy in the states. We are thrilled to revitalize this database in such a robust and timely way to help all policy actors—be it the state board, education agency, legislature, or governor—find ways to ensure that the policies they adopt fully address all children’s physical, social, emotional, and academic needs.”

Visit NASBE’s State Policy Database on School Health at statepolicies.nasbe.org/health.

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