Advocates Call for Healthier Schools

May 12, 2012
by Emily Walker
MedPage Today

A new set of recommendations announced Wednesday calls on health and education officials and educators to improve health of students in hopes that improved health will equate to better learning.

The initiative, dubbed "Health in Mind," is sponsored by the Trust for America's Health and the Healthy Schools Campaign. It outlines strategies that federal agencies can deploy to create the conditions for health and learning in schools.

The Health in Mind recommendations include:

• Training principals and teachers to promote student health and wellness to help identify and address student health issues.
• Incorporating health and wellness school metrics to allow schools to make data-based decisions about how health and wellness impact student learning.
• Reducing barriers that schools face when seeking reimbursement for health services delivered to kids on Medicaid. Currently schools must pay for health services, but many people feel that Medicaid should cover such services.

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