Parents for Healthy Schools Resources

Overview

Parents for Healthy Schools includes facts sheets, a guide with training and evaluation materials, and an e-learning course.

Schools and school groups can use these materials to:

• Educate parents about school nutrition environment and services, school-based physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions in school settings.

• Provide parents with practical strategies and actions to improve the school health environment.

• Suggest ways to track progress in engaging parents to help improve the school health environment.

Parents for Healthy Schools also includes tip sheets called “Ideas for Parents.” The tip sheets have suggestions for parents on how to support health programs at their child’s school. Parents can help support healthy eating, physical activity, and health services for chronic conditions, like asthma and diabetes.

Tools for schools and school groups

• Parents for Healthy Schools: A Guide for Getting Parents Involved From K–12

• Parents for Healthy Schools: Making a Difference in Your Child’s School

• Making a Difference in Your Child’s School Evaluation Form

• Making a Difference in Your Child’s School Check-in Questions

• Parents for Healthy Schools e-Learning Course

1. Deliver a presentation to parents through PTA/PTO meetings, school wellness committees, or other networks.
2. Look for signs of change and collect parent feedback using the check-in questions and the evaluation form.

Ideas for Parents

Nutrition

Schools offer students opportunities to learn about and practice healthy eating. The school nutrition environment refers to the foods and beverages available to students during the school day. It also refers to food- and nutrition-related information and messages on school grounds.

Ideas for Parents provides information and suggestions for how parents can get involved in the following ways:

Nutrition Overview: English | Spanish

School Meals: English | Spanish

Smart Snacks in School: English | Spanish

Healthy Fundraisers: English | Spanish

Healthy Student Rewards: English | Spanish

Events and Celebrations During the School Day: English | Spanish

Drinking Water Availability: English | Spanish

Food Marketing in Schools: English | Spanish

Physical education and physical activity

Schools can offer many options for students to be physically active during the school day. A Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program increases physical activity opportunities before, during, and after school. In this way, the program increases students’ overall physical activity and health.

Ideas for Parents provides information and suggestions for how parents can get involved in physical education and physical activity. These suggestions align with the school's comprehensive physical activity program:

Physical Activity Overview: English | Spanish

Physical Education: English | Spanish

Student Fitness Assessment: English | Spanish

Recess: English | Spanish

Classroom Physical Activity: English | Spanish

Before and After-School Physical Activity: English | Spanish

Staff Involvement: English | Spanish

Chronic health conditions

Schools can support students with chronic conditions—like asthma and diabetes—to be healthy and ready to learn. Many schools offer health services. Some schools may have a full-time registered nurse or other health staff to help students with emergencies and manage chronic conditions. Some school districts may have school-based health centers that can deliver direct medical, dental, nutritional, and mental health services to students, and sometimes their families.

Ideas for Parents has information and suggestions about how parents can support schools in managing students with chronic conditions:

Chronic Health Conditions Overview: English | Spanish

Health Services: English | Spanish

Asthma: English | Spanish

Diabetes Health: English | Spanish

Food Allergies: English | Spanish

Oral Health: English | Spanish

Seizure Disorders: English | Spanish

Tobacco

Schools are critical environments for:

• Establishing tobacco-free social norms.
• Educating youth about the harms of tobacco product use.
• Preventing students’ exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and e-cigarette aerosol.

It is important to establish and enforce a tobacco-free campus policy that prohibits the use of any tobacco product, including e-cigarettes. The policy should prohibit students’ possession of any tobacco product at school. In addition, the policy should prohibit tobacco use at school-sponsored events—by everyone, at all times.

Ideas for Parents offers information and suggestions for how parents can support a tobacco-free campus.

Tobacco: English | Spanish

Resources

For School Districts and School Administrators

For Teachers and Other School Staff

For Parents and Families

Learning Heroes | Family Engagement Resources