Final
Draft Revisions
Model Policy Language
Prepared
by:
April, 2006
In
June 2005, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation (S0565, amending
Section 16-2-9 of the General Laws in Chapter 16-2 entitled "School
Committees and Superintendents") to address the health and wellness of
students and employees.
The
new law was developed in accordance with the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC
Reauthorization Act, Section 204 of Public Law 108-265. It requires the establishment of a
subcommittee of the school board or committee to decrease obesity and address
school health and wellness policies for students and employees.
Intent
The purpose of this model policy language is to provide a template and sample language for district policy writers. This document is not intended for adoption in its entirety by districts, unless they so choose. It is intended for districts to use AS A TOOL in drafting their own policies.
Districts may choose to use sections of this
document and/or alter the language in any way.
However, we believe the language contained in this document is
reasonable and sound. We developed this
tool to help
Model Language: District Nutrition & Physical Activity
Policy – Page 1
Policy Intent/Rationale
The
To accomplish these goals:
The entire school environment, not just the classroom, shall be aligned with healthy school goals to positively influence the understanding, beliefs and habits of students and staff as they relate to good nutrition and regular physical activity. A healthy school environment should not be sacrificed because of a dependence on revenue from high-fat, high-sugar, and low nutrient dense foods to support school programs.
All foods available on school grounds and at school-sponsored activities during the instructional day should meet or exceed the district nutrition standards. Emphasis should be placed on foods that are nutrient dense per calorie. To ensure high quality, nutritious meals, foods should be served with consideration toward variety, appeal, taste, safety, and packaging. Locally grown and produced fruits, vegetables and dairy items should be purchased and served whenever possible.
A quality physical education program is an essential component for all students to learn about and participate in physical activity. Physical activity should be included in a school's daily education program from grades pre-K through 12. Physical activity should include regular instructional physical education, in accordance with The Rhode Island Physical Education Framework, as well as co-curricular activities, and recess. Encourage increased physical activity among staff.
Educators, administrators, parents, health practitioners and communities must consider the critical role student health plays in academic stamina and performance and adapt the school environment to ensure students’ basic nourishment and activity needs are met. To ensure widespread understanding of the benefits to school environments where nutritious foods are provided and where students have an opportunity for physical activity, a public awareness campaign that highlights research demonstrating the positive relationship between good nutrition, physical activity, and capacity of students to develop and learn should be conducted.
Model Language: District Nutrition & Physical Activity Policy – Page
2
The purpose of the sub-committee is:
·
Development
of health and wellness policies, strategies and implementation
·
Make
recommendations regarding the districts health education curriculum and
instruction
·
Make
recommendations regarding the district’s physical education curriculum and
instruction
·
Make
recommendations regarding nutrition and physical activity policies to decrease
obesity and enhance the health and well-being of students and employees
·
Evaluate
policy progress and revise as necessary
·
Serve as a
resource to school sites, (e.g. provide lists of healthy incentives, snacks,
birthday celebration foods, etc.)
Responsibilities may include, but not be limited
to, oversight of the following:
·
Implementation
of district nutrition and physical activity standards
·
Integration
of nutrition and physical activity in the overall curriculum
·
Assurance
that staff professional development includes nutrition and physical activity
issues
·
Assurance
that students receive nutrition education and engage in vigorous physical
activity
·
Encourage
healthful eating and inclusion of nutrient dense food options and the reduction
of high-fat, high-sugar, and low nutrient dense foods among all school venues
that involve the sale of food.
·
Prepare an Annual Report each year that
includes, but may not be limited to, the following information:
·
Monthly
district menus and meal counts
·
Listing of
all a la carte and vending sales of foods throughout the district including
school food service, vending machines, school stores, culinary and special
education programs, in-school and in-class fundraisers, etc.
·
Listing of
physical activity programs and opportunities for students throughout the school
year.
·
Listing of
staff wellness promotion activities
Model Language: District Nutrition & Physical Activity
Policy – Page 3
Nutrition Education Standards
Student Nutrition Education:
The _______________ School District has a comprehensive curriculum
approach to nutrition in Kindergarten through 12th grade. All K-12 instructional staff will be
encouraged to integrate nutritional themes from the Rhode Island Department of
Education Health Education Framework
and/or the Rhode Island Family & Consumer Science Framework into daily
lessons when appropriate. The health
benefits of good nutrition should be emphasized. These nutritional themes include but are not
limited to:
Knowledge of the Food Guide Pyramid Healthy
heart choices
Sources & variety of foods ,
including locally grown Dietary
Guidelines for Americans
Diet and disease prevention Understanding
calories
Healthy snacks Healthy
breakfast
Food labels Bone
health & osteoporosis
Major nutrients Multicultural
influences
Serving portion sizes Proper
Food Safety/Sanitation
Promote and identify high nutrient dense foods
Parent Nutrition Education:
·
Nutrition
education will be provided to parents beginning at the elementary level. The goal will be to continue to educate
parents throughout middle and high school levels.
·
Nutrition
education may be provided in the form of handouts, postings on the district
website, articles and information provided in district or school newsletters,
presentations that focus on nutritional value and healthy lifestyles, and
through any other appropriate means available for reaching parents.
Staff Nutrition & Physical Activity Education:
Nutrition and physical activity education opportunities will be provided
to all school staff at the elementary, middle and high school levels. These educational opportunities may include,
but not be limited to, the distribution of educational and informational
materials and the arrangement of presentations and workshops that focus on
nutritional value and healthy lifestyles, health assessments, fitness
activities, and other appropriate nutrition and physical activity-related
topics. The purpose of staff nutrition
and physical activity education will be to:
·
Encourage
all school staff to improve their own personal health and wellness
·
Improve
staff morale
·
Create
positive role modeling
·
Build the
commitment of staff to promote the health of students
·
Build the
commitment of staff to help improve the school nutrition and physical activity
environment.
Model Language: District Nutrition & Physical Activity
Policy – Page 4
The USDA Reimbursable School Meal Programs (school food service):
·
The full
meal school breakfast and lunch programs will comply with the USDA Requirements
for Federal School Meals Programs. The
district standards may be more restrictive than USDA guidelines but may not be
less restrictive. The School Food Service provider will be encouraged to
purchase locally grown fruits, vegetables and dairy products whenever possible.
·
The School
Food Service Program including vending, ala carte and foods sold on campus will
follow the District's Nutrition Standards when determining the items offered in
the cafeteria as a la carte and for competitive food offerings.
·
The Food
Service Director will work closely with the district-wide Coordinated School
Health and Wellness Sub-Committee.
A la Carte, Vending and All Foods Sold on Campus
Food:
·
Encourage
the consumption of nutrient dense foods, i.e. Whole Grains, Fresh Fruits &
Vegetables, and Dairy Products.
·
Any given
food item for sale prior to the start of the school day and throughout the
instructional day, will meet the District Nutrition Standards for Vending and A
la Carte Foods. Refer to attached
detailed District Nutrition Standards for Vending and A la Carte Foods.
Beverages:
·
ONLY Milk,
Water, and beverages containing 50-100% fruit juices with no added artificial
sweeteners may be sold on school grounds both immediately prior to and
throughout the instructional day. This
standard can be phased-in over the next three school years.
·
Refer to the
attached detailed District Nutrition Standards for Vending and A La Carte
Foods.
Cafeteria Environment:
·
A cafeteria
environment that provides students with a relaxed, enjoyable climate shall be
developed.
·
The
cafeteria environment is a place where students have:
·
Adequate
space to eat and clean, pleasant surroundings;
·
Adequate
time to eat meals. (The School Nutrition
Association (SNA) recommends at least 20 minutes for lunch from the time
students are seated with their food); and
·
Convenient
access to hand washing or hand sanitizing facilities before meals.
Fundraising:
·
All
fund-raising projects shall follow the District Nutrition Standards for Vending
and A La Carte Foods.
·
All fund
raising projects for sale and consumption within and prior to the instructional
day will follow the District Nutrition Standards for Vending and A La Carte
Foods when determining the items being sold.
·
No candy
will be sold for fundraising. Candy is
defined as any processed food item that has:
1.
sugar
(including brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, fructose, glucose dextrose,
high fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, molasses, raw
sugar, table sugar /sucrose, syrup listed as one of the first two ingredients
AND
2.
sugar is
more than 25% of the item by weight.
·
Non-food
based fundraisers are encouraged
·
Fundraisers
that promote physical activity are encouraged
Model
Language: District Nutrition &
Physical Activity Policy – Page 5
Teacher-to-Student Rewards and
Incentive:
It is the intent of the school district that rewards and incentives do
not undermine efforts put forth in the nutrition policy. Therefore, the district prohibits the use of
food as reward or punishment in the classroom or in the school environment. All teachers must comply with the District
Nutrition Standards for Vending and A La Carte Foods in the classroom.
Classroom Snacks
Classrooms snacks provided by the teacher must comply with District
Nutrition Standards for Vending and A La Carte Foods.
Celebrations
Celebrations include, but are not limited to, birthdays, holidays,
pot-lucks, etc. The school district may
choose to handle celebrations in a variety of ways:
·
Non-food
celebrations only
·
All
celebrations must comply with District Nutrition Standards for Vending and A La
Carte Foods.
·
Celebrations
are limited to a designated number of times per year
School
Stores:
School Stores who sell food during the school day must comply with
District Nutrition Standards for Vending and A La Carte Foods.
Concessions
Starting in 2007-08
school concessions will offer water, 100% juice and low-fat milk or flavored
milks with no more than 4 grams of sugar per ounce at events.
(School districts may want to specify an exemption from the District
Nutrition Standards. It is recommended
that the exemption be included in the policy language for community-wide
clarity.)
District Physical Education
and Physical Activity Policy
Definitions for the
purposes of this policy:
Physical Activity
(PA) -is any leisure or non-leisure
movement of the body that expends energy, such as exercise, sports, dance,
mobility training or physical therapy, brisk walking, swimming or other body
movements that result in an increased heart rate.
Physical Education
(PE) -a sequential, developmentally
appropriate K to 12 curriculum, in accordance with the Rhode Island Physical
Education Framework, enabling students to develop the knowledge, motor skills,
self-management skills, attitudes and confidence needed to adopt and maintain
physical activity throughout their lives.
Adapted Physical
Education and Physical Activities -are
those designed for a student whose special needs or other health conditions
require alternative safe and appropriate physical activities that meet their
specific needs.
District Physical Activity
Goal: To provide daily physical activity and
physical education opportunities, empowering students with the knowledge and
skills to lead a physically active lifestyle.
The ______________________
School District shall utilize the following Implementation Strategies:
Physical Education: PE and/or adapted PE will be available for
all students.
1. Every student in grades k-12
should participate in daily PE for
the entire school year with the state mandated requirement as the minimum time
allotment. The NASPE recommendation is
for 150 minutes per week in elementary grades and 225 minutes in high school.
2. District shall establish
specific learning goals and objectives for PE. A sequential, developmentally appropriate
curriculum shall be designed, implemented, and evaluated to help students
develop the knowledge, motor skills, self-management skills, attitudes, and
confidence needed to adopt and maintain physical activity throughout their
lives.
3. District will implement
recommended guidelines for school PE/PA
leaders established by the National Association for Sport and Physical
Education (NASPE) enabling students to achieve and maintain a high level of
personal fitness:
-
Expose students to a wide variety of physical activities
-
Teach physical skills to help maintain a lifetime of health and fitness
-
Encourage self-monitoring enabling students to set and achieve fitness
goals
-
Individualize fitness/activity programs
-
Help students to establish a personal fitness baseline and create
individual fitness benchmarks to monitor progress
-
Be active/positive role models
4. District will implement
recommended PE/PA guidelines for
students K-12 established by NASPE:
-
Children should accumulate at least 60 minutes, and up to several
hours, of age appropriate physical activity on all (or most) days of the week.
-
Children should participate in several bouts of PA lasting 15 minutes or more each day
-
Children should participate in a variety of age appropriate physical
activities designed to achieve optimal health
-
Extended periods (periods of 2 hours or more) of inactivity are
discouraged for children during daytime hours
5. District will implement
health-related fitness assessment:
-
Introduce developmentally appropriate components of a health-related
fitness assessment (e.g. FitnessGram, Physical Best or the President’s
Challenge) in kindergarten or first grade.
-
Beginning in middle school and continuing through high school a
health-related fitness assessment should be administered to all students.
Physical
Activity: PA and/or adapted PA
opportunities will be available for all students daily: before, during and after school.
1. Provide adequate,
developmentally appropriate, safe facilities and recreation areas for PA.
2. Develop student
understanding of all procedures and information to minimize risks associated
with PA
3. Collaborate with qualified
professionals and organizations in the community contributing to PA opportunities.
4. Require the incorporation of
NASPE Guidelines, as listed in 3 and 4 above, throughout all district PA activities.
Create opportunities and
devote resources for STAFF to engage in physical activity.
This
policy will go into effect _________of_________, __________