Children need the tools to be successful; they need the energy and the ability to be strong students.”

- Dr. Madhu Mathur, (Director of KIDS FANS Wellness Program and Chair of the Obesity Task Force at Stamford Hospital)

Coordinated School Health is a strategy designed to improve students’ health and their academic achievement.   It responds to the severity of childhood obesity and acknowledges the strong link between nutrition, school-based physical activity, physical education and academic performance.  It also recognizes that student health has a direct impact on cognitive skills and attitudes toward academic behavior, and results in better concentration, attention, and overall    improved classroom behavior

To respond effectively to the achievement gap in our schools, implementing Coordinated School Health is an essential part of the solution.

When local school districts implement a coordinated approach - led by a Coordinated School Health director - the benefits include improved student health and better academic performance.  This approach works.  In Tennessee, for example, where each school district has its own coordinator, the childhood obesity rate dropped 2 % in one year.   Healthier students tend to do better in school, drop out less and graduate more.

A school health coordinator oversees the full spectrum of a child’s well-being: academic, physical, social and nutritional.

While school nurses and teachers provide specific attention in their individual fields, a school health coordinator considers all aspects of a child’s progress and ensures that no element falls between the cracks.  That is especially important in the state’s lowest performing school districts, where the risks to individual student success are greatest.

Implementing Coordinated School Health programs in Connecticut school districts is a priority of the  Connecticut Coalition Against Childhood Obesity.

The 2012 session is going to be dominated by education reform; however, if childhood obesity and the health of our children are not a part of this conversation then we may be missing a major piece of this puzzle.”

-    Lucy Nolan, End Hunger Connecticut!