Redwood City School District (RCSD) has a long history of attending to the needs of its students and their families, and it has responded to the current incidence of mental health challenges among youth by setting a goal that by June 2024, every student will receive "appropriate social-emotional supports designed to meet their needs. The plan…

Background: Out-of-school time (OST) programs are an important setting for supporting student health and academic achievement. This study describes the prevalence and characteristics of school-based OST programs, which can inform efforts to promote healthy behaviors in this setting. Methods: A nationally representative sample of public elementary…

Background: Schools are an important setting for improving behaviors associated with obesity, including physical activity. However, within schools there is often a tension between spending time on activities promoting academic achievement and those promoting physical activity. Methods: A community-based intervention provided administrators and…

The relationship between breakfast consumption and academic success has been extensively studied over the past 30 years. Despite the wide availability of school breakfast programs and the preponderance of evidence that breakfast consumption has positive effects on a student's ability to learn and function in the school setting, many students do…

Background: The relationship between physical activity (PA) and academic achievement has received much attention given the recent push to increase children's PA levels through Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP). Methods: In this study we followed 214 urban elementary students through an 8-month healthy school transformation…

Over the past several decades, there has been an increased focus on health promotion as opposed to individual health determinants and disease prevention. Given the association between health and academic success, health promotion is a vastly overlooked lever for establishing effective K-12 schools. Student, organizational, and community well-being…

A comprehensive school and community wellness plan was developed and implemented to transform "Lemon Grove Academy" for the Sciences and Humanities, an urban school, where student achievement and faculty satisfaction has soared. The school has become the center for the local neighborhood where culture, language, and equity are valued.…

Evaluation of after-school programs that are culturally and place-based and promote positive youth development among minority and indigenous youths has not been widely published. The present evaluation is the first of its kind of an after-school, youth-risk prevention program called Hui Malama O Ke Kai (HMK), that emphasizes Native Hawaiian values…

This report provides a comprehensive review of the status of Louisiana's youth and is designed to be used in planning efforts and in developing priorities for improving the health and welfare of the youth of the state. Chapter 1 of the report examines the concept of expanding the definition of health to include social and emotional development,…