School Health Index (SHI)

Purpose

The School Health Index (SHI): Self-Assessment and Planning Guide was developed by CDC. CDC worked on SHI in partnership with school administrators and staff, school health experts, parents, and national nongovernmental health and education agencies to:

• Enable schools to identify strengths and weaknesses of health and safety policies and programs.
• Enable schools to develop an action plan for improving student health, which can be incorporated into the School Improvement Plan.
• Engage teachers, parents, students, and the community in promoting health-enhancing behaviors and better health.

Access and complete the SHI

Access the online version of the SHI.

What the SHI is

• Self-assessment and planning tool.
• Community-organizing and educational process.
• Focused, reasonable, and user-friendly experience.
• Process that identifies no- or low-cost changes.
• Process that provides justification for funding requests.

What the SHI is not

• Research or evaluation tool.
• Tool for auditing or punishing school staff.
• Long, bureaucratic, painful process.
• Process that requires expensive changes.
• Process that identifies unfunded mandates.

Two activities within the SHI

1. The self-assessment process involves members of your school community coming together to discuss what your school is already doing to promote good health and to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
   1. The SHI allows you to assess how your school implements the types of policies and practices recommended by CDC based on evidence in the field of school health and safety.
2. The planning for improvement process helps you identify recommended actions your school can take to improve its performance in low-scoring areas.
   1. It guides you through a simple process for prioritizing the various recommendations. This step will help you decide on a handful of actions to implement this year.
   2. Finally, you will complete a School Health Improvement Plan to list the steps you will take to implement your actions.

What's included

The SHI currently addresses seven health topic areas, including:

• Physical activity and physical education.
• Nutrition.
• Tobacco-use prevention.
• Alcohol and other drug use prevention.
• Chronic health conditions (for instance, asthma, food allergies).
• Unintentional injury and violence prevention (safety).
• Sexual health—including HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy prevention.

The SHI also includes cross-cutting questions, which address policies and practices that apply to all seven health topic areas.

Completing the SHI is an important first step toward improving your school’s health promotion policies and practices. Your school can then act to:

• Implement the School Health Improvement Plan.
• Develop an ongoing process for monitoring progress and reviewing your recommendations for change.

The results from using the SHI can also help you include health promotion activities in your overall School Improvement Plan.

SHI Modules

The SHI is based on CDC’s research-based guidelines for school health programs. These guidelines identify the policies and practices most likely to be effective in reducing youth health risk behaviors. The SHI contains 11 modules, structured around the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child framework:

1. School Health and Safety Policies and Environment.
2. Health Education.
3. Physical Education and Physical Activity Programs.
4. Nutrition Environment and Services.
5. School Health Services.
6. School Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services.
7. Social and Emotional Climate.
8. Physical Environment.
9. Employee Wellness and Health Promotion.
10. Family Engagement.
11. Community Involvement.

Download the SHI

• SHI for Elementary Schools
• SHI for Middle and High Schools