New Mexico Healthy Schools Project

Healthy Students are Better Learners

Schools have direct contact with more than 95% of our nation’s young people aged 5-17 years, for about six hours per day and up to 13 critical years of their social, psychological, physical, and intellectual development. Schools play an important role in promoting the health and safety of children and adolescents by helping them to establish lifelong health patterns.

Healthy students are better learners, and academic achievement bears a lifetime of benefits for health. Schools are an ideal setting to teach and provide students with opportunities to improve their dietary and physical activity behaviors and manage their chronic health conditions (asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, food allergies, and poor oral health). When policies and practices are put in place to support healthy school environments, healthy students can grow to be healthy and successful adults.

Purpose and Outcomes of the Project

Short-Term Outcomes (1-3 years)

• Increased number of schools with an action plan based on completion of the School Health Index (SHI).
• Increased implementation of evidence-based Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP).
• Increased implementation of evidence-based school nutrition and food security policies and practices.
• Increased implementation of evidence-based health services, policies, and practices that support students with chronic health conditions.

Intermediate Outcomes (3-5 years)

• Increased physical activity among students in priority local education agency (LEA) and corresponding schools.
• Increased healthy dietary behaviors among students in priority LEA and corresponding schools.
• Increased self-management of chronic health conditions among students in priority LEA and corresponding schools.

Long-Term Outcomes (5 or more years)

• Decreased overweight and obesity among students.
• Increased emotional well-being among students.
• Improved academic achievement among students.
• Reduced health disparities among students in underserved and disproportionately affected communities.

Funding

The project is made possible through a five-year federal grant entitled, “School-Based Interventions to Promote Equity and Improve Health, Academic Achievement, and Well-Being of Students,” through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Population Health, School Health Branch. More information can be found at CDC Healthy Schools.

The Healthy Schools Grant provides NM an opportunity to build and enhance infrastructure and capacity within our state in order to strengthen:

• Physical Activity
• Physical Education
• Health Education
• Nutrition
• Management of Chronic Disease in Schools

… as a pathway to academic success through a targeted, statewide approach through the coordinated school health model.