Safe and Healthy Schools
Coordinated School Health Approach
Schools play a critical role in promoting the health of young people and helping them establish lifelong healthy behaviors. Research shows that healthy schools can help improve students' academic performance and overall health.
Coordinated School Health encourages healthy lifestyles, provides needed supports to at-risk students, and helps to reduce the prevalence of health problems that impair academic success.
Full involvement of parents, families, and community in the educational process provides valuable input, increases the commitment of all partners and ensures positive educational and health outcomes.
Coordinated School Health is not a program, but is a collaborative effort in promoting student health that emphasizes needs assessment; planning based on data, sound science and analysis of gaps and redundancies in school health programming; and evaluation.
The CSH approach consists of eight major components. By definition, all Coordinated School Health Components work together to improve the lives of students and their families. Although these components are listed separately, it is their composite that allows CSH to have significant impact. The eight components include: health education, health services, counseling, psychological and social services, nutrition, physical education/physical activity, school staff wellness, healthy school environment and student, parent, and community involvement.
Safe and Healthy Schools Professional Learning Opportunities
Stronger Connections Grant Building Safe and Healthy Oklahoma School Communities
Goals of Oklahoma's Coordinated School Health Initiatives
- Improve the health and academic status of all Oklahoma students.
- Build and maintain state and local partnerships to address school health priorities.
- Create an understanding about the relationship between health and academics.
- Maximize resources and avoid duplication of services through effective coordination and communication.
- Utilize data to develop and maintain school health priorities.
