The McComb School District in Mississippi is supporting the fundamental needs of all students and has achieved outstanding results. The challenge of turning around the struggling school system into a successful school is discussed.

Older veterans often use both the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Medicare to obtain health care services. The authors sought to compare outpatient medical service utilization of Medicare-enrolled rural veterans with their urban counterparts in New England. The authors combined VHA and Medicare databases and identified veterans who were…

How much "junk food" is too much? This question is difficult to answer, because it depends on the health and weight status of the child. If the child already has a weight problem, then this type of snack should be more restricted than for a child without weight issues. In this article, Dr. Ludwig states that, as a general rule, parents should not…

Sensitive and responsive caregiving is associated with better cognitive and language outcomes. Using the longitudinal data set from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, this study asks how changes in the sensitivity of both mothers and caregivers from 6 months to 6…

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

Kindergarten has changed significantly in the last two decades: children now spend more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to…

The need for successful nutrition interventions is critical as the prevalence of childhood obesity increases. Thus, this pilot project examines the effect of a nutrition education program, "Color My Pyramid", on children's nutrition knowledge, self-care practices, activity levels, and nutrition status. Using a pretest-posttest,…

Educational research, practice, and institutions regularly highlight the significance of factors outside of schooling that affect children's engagement and participation in classroom learning. The health of children and families is one such issue with implications for the quality of children's school experiences, treatment in school, and academic…

Fun & Fit is a program designed to create positive physical activity experiences and to promote healthy lifestyle choices among overweight children from low-income African American and Hispanic American families. The program is a collaborative project between Texas Tech University and the Lubbock Independent School District funded through a…

In this era of increasing accountability and high-stakes testing in schools, a serious paradox has surfaced. Children are becoming overweight at an alarming rate, and mounting evidence points to a relationship between obesity and poor school performance. Ironically, pressure to improve children's academic achievement has led many schools to adopt…

Few studies have utilized both categorical and dimensional measures of psychopathology in children with epilepsy. We evaluated 173 children (88 males, 85 females; mean age 11.7y [SD 1.8]; range 9-14y) who had epilepsy (generalized 36%, partial 61%) for at least 6 months. The primary caregiver completed a dimensional measure, the Child Behavior…

Research Findings: Research on teacher-child relationships is important, as the quality of this relationship is linked to numerous child outcomes in the areas of academic and social functioning. In addition, parent involvement has been identified as a significant factor in the successful development of a child. This study attempted to join these…

Background: Many childhood psychiatric problems are transient. Consequently, screening procedures to accurately identify children with problems unlikely to remit and thus, in need of intervention, are of major public health concern. This study aimed to develop a universal school-based screening procedure based on the answers to three questions:…

Research has shown that children less than 5 years of age are at high risk of serious flu-related complications. It is estimated that more than 20,000 children less than 5 years old are hospitalized due to flu each year in the U.S. Many more have to go to a doctor, an urgent care center, or the emergency room because of flu. Complications from the…

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue focuses on a chemical spill that went unreported for approximately seven years, setting off a series of responses from the school district's Environmental Health and Safety Department (EHS) and the state…