Local Wellness Policy A T eam A pproach

1. Local Wellness Policy A Team Approach Kentucky Department of Education Jenny Fuller

2. What is a Local Wellness Policy? An important tool for parents, LEAs and school districts in promoting school wellness, preventing and reducing childhood obesity, and providing assurance that school meal nutrition guidelines meet the minimum federal school meal standards.

3. Legal Authority Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 Reauthorization Act of 2010: Health and Hunger Free Kids Act New Local Wellness Policy Proposed Rule is currently under review- tentative effective date: July 1, 2015.

4. Implementation Timeline

6. Build a Strong Teams Build a Strong Team • Publiclyannounce committee formation so others know to join if interested. • Build Committee Framework: • Decide a meeting time and place. • Create a template for notes and documentation. Ideas for Committee Members: Parents, Students, Representatives of SFA, the School Board, School Administrators, Teachers (including PE and School Health Professionals), and the Public

7. Assess Your Needs/Environment • Assess Your Needs/ Environment • Perform an assessment of your school nutrition environment. • Examples of a few assessments: • WellSAT (www.wellsat.org) • Alliance for a Healthier Generation- Healthier Schools Program Inventory Use your assessment to determine what should go in your policy.

8. Draft Your Policy What must be included… 1. Specific goals for nutrition promotion and education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness; 2. Nutrition guidelinesto promote student health and reduce childhood obesity for all foods available in each school district; 3. Permit parents, students, representatives of the SFA, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the school board, school administrators, and the general public to participate in the development, implementation, and the review and update of the policy; 4. Informand update the publicabout the content and implementation of the policy; 5. Be measured periodically on the extent to which the LEA is in attaining the goals it set for wellness and make this assessment available to the public. • Draft a Policy

9. Goal Writing Be sure to refer back to your assessment to develop goals. For example, if your assessment shows a weakness in nutrition education for students, create a goal to offer two or three nutrition education programs for the next school year. Another example: if your assessment shows a weakness in the amount of physical activity offered to students, create a goal to add instructional time that incorporates physical activity or start a walking club.

10. Nutrition Guidelines • Ensure that nutrition guidelines for foods available to students in your school district encourage health and reduce obesity.

11. Public Notification Ensure that the public is made aware of the efforts of the committee with regard to the Local Wellness Policy. The public must be made of aware of updates, progress made towards goals, assessments and ways to be involved.

12. Adopt Policy Adopt Policy • Once your team has drafted or revised a policy and worked to gain support of key stakeholders, the team faces challenges of getting the school board or other governing body to approve it. Can be time consuming! Successful policies have the full support and understanding of all parties involved! • Things to think about: • What is policy adoption process for district? • Timeline to get LWP reviewed and on agenda? • Does LWP impact other policies? • Are there costs related to the policy being adopted? • What are benefits to adopting policy?

13. Implement Policy Implement Policy • Put your policy and procedures into action!! • Think about prioritizing implementation activities (can’t do everything at once!) • Steps for Implementing • Establish realistic time frames • Specify an individual(s) to be responsible for evaluating and enforcing • Find and share resources on school wellness activities • Use action plan to specify what data will be collected and used to assess progress

16. Measure and Evaluate • Measure and Evaluate • Considerations: • What are you measuring? • Can you list 3 ways your district has been working to meet LWP goals • What has been accomplished? • How many schools, students, staff, parents, etc. participated in events and programs? • Did you do what you planned to do? • How often does the Committee review the policy and plan?

17. Measure and Evaluate Measure and Evaluate • Helpful Resources: • WellSAT http://wellsat.org/ • Alliance for a Healthier Generation https://schools.healthiergeneration.org/focus_areas/wellness_councils_and_policies/policy_evaluation/ • CDC PECAT (physical activity curriculum analysis tool) http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/PECAT/ • CDC HECAT (health education curriculum analysis tool) http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/HECAT/index.htm • CDC School Health Index http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/SHI/

18. Communicate the Results • Inform the public (including parents, students and others in the community) about the content and implementation of the LWP. • Proactive communication will inform, educate, and build district wellness efforts. • Communication methods: • Website • District communications: • Automated phone calls, emails, texts • Student handouts • Parent mailings • Student handbooks • Local newspaper, television and media outlets • Communicate the Results

19. Administrative Review What does the review team look for? What are the common findings?

20. Do you have a LWP? • Does the LWP include: • Measureable goals for: • Nutrition education • Physical activity • Nutrition promotion • Other school-based activities to promote student wellness • Nutrition guidelines for all foods available on the school campus. • A plan for measuring implementation. • Designation of one or more officials in charge of school compliance oversight.

21. Does the public know? • How does the public know about the LWP? • Documentation must be provided to support this response.

22. Was there a review and update? • When and how does the review and update of the LWP occur? • Documentation must be provided

23. Who was involved? • Were the individuals involved in reviewing and updating the LWP identified? • What was the relationship of those involved in the review and updating the LWP identified?

24. Potential Stakeholders? • Did the SFA provide information about how potential stakeholders are made aware of their availability to participate in the development, review, update, and implementation of the LWP? • Documentation must be provided

25. Measurement? • Did the SFA provide a copy of the most recent copy of the assessment on the implementation of the LWP? • Does the assessment include: • The extent to which schools are in compliance with the LWP? • The progress made toward attaining the goals of the LWP?

26. Communication?? • Did the SFA identify how the public knows about the results of the most recent assessment on the implementation of the LWP? • Documentation must be provided

27. Common Findings Physical Education and other-school-based activities to promote student wellness, measuring implementation and monitoring – Not in Policy Policy outdated Policy does not speak to district – using sample policy Districts are using report card as their policy Lack of support documentation to show how the public knows about the policy Lack of documentation to show and when the review was updated

28. Common Findings Districts do not include who was responsible for the update to the policy and how they are related to the district Lack of documentation to show how people were invited to be part of the wellness committee No assessment used Lack of support documentation showing how the public was notified about the “new” policy Wellness policy hard to find on website Link on district website takes you to KSBA for LWP, making it hard to find

29. Questions?