Healthy Schools
Overview
Whole School, Whole Community Whole Child Model/Coordinated School Health Approach
Research shows a significant connection between healthy lifestyle behaviors and student academic achievement. Healthy students learn better and positive school and community connections throughout the K-12 educational period provides a lifetime of health benefits. Schools are an idea setting to provide student with the resources and opportunities to not only learn skills to support a healthy lifestyle but to also practice healthy behaviors.1
The Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) Healthy Schools program works collaboratively with Nebraska schools to support the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, a program that includes resources and support for the individual, family, school and the community.
This model is an expansion of the Coordinated School Health approach to school wellness efforts supported by the Nebraska Department of Education. It emphasizes the relationship between educational attainment and health, by putting the child at the center of a systems designed to support a unified and collaborative approach that recognizes that healthy children learn better.
Current work of the Healthy Schools program focuses on the following key areas: Chronic Disease Management, Nutrition Education, Out of School Tim and Physical Education and Physical Activity. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of the WSCC model, which is strategically aligned with school health programs and services to assist educators in closing the achievement gap.1
