The online SHI allows you to log in, create your SHI, complete self-assessment questions, and create a plan for improvement through online forms. The system saves all your data for you, and multiple team members can log on at the same time.

Privacy Information

In addition to the general CDC Privacy Policy governing the collection of personal information through the Internet, a privacy policy has been developed for the online SHI.

The online SHI privacy information governs the following three features of the Internet application:

Team login requirement
Storage of online SHI data
Use of optional user E-mail

Team login requirement

To create an online SHI, your school is required to create a team name and password. To maintain security, the password is encrypted and stored securely.

Storage of online SHI data

The login feature allows your school to store and retrieve your online SHI data. The data you enter is stored at and owned by CDC, and may be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. However, CDC does not monitor school data except in cases of data issues.

Because school teams can have multiple users sharing a login, it is each school's responsibility to monitor its online SHI data and notify CDC of any abuse to the data.

While CDC makes reasonable efforts to maintain the confidentiality of online SHI data, we cannot guarantee the security of these data. Therefore, please refrain from entering confidential information.

CDC does not endorse online SHI data, nor does CDC take responsibility for assigning access to it. Responsibility for assuring the quality of online SHI data, and for deciding who has access to it, remains with your school. Therefore, schools who create online SHIs should be careful to assess the accuracy and appropriateness of their data before entering it into the online SHI, and should be careful about assigning access rights to team members. It is recommended that your school change the team password each time a team member leaves the team.

Use of optional E-mail

The registration process includes both required and optional information. Your contact E-mail address is optional. Electing not to provide an E-mail address will not inhibit your school's ability to use the online SHI. However, if you provide an E-mail address, your team contact will be able to reset your team's password if it is lost or forgotten, and receive notices of new SHI editions if you elect to do so. Otherwise, it will not be possible to reset your team's password, and you will be required to register with a new team name and password and to re-enter all online SHI data.

If you do provide a contact E-mail address and the contact E-mail changes, you can edit your team's profile at any time to update the E-mail address.

Before you begin

Team collaboration

Completing the SHI should be a group effort. This brings objectivity and creativity to the process. It is recommended that more than one individual be assigned to each module. Multiple team members can log into the SHI at the same time. However, if several people are simultaneously working on the same module, only the most recent entries will be saved. Team collaboration is therefore highly recommended to guard against loss of data.

It's your SHI

The SHI is a self-assessment tool that can be used as a planning guide for improvement, and there is no single way to implement it. Feel free to explore and utilize the SHI in any way that suits your school's needs. The scorecards should be used only for recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of your school and for planning for improvement. They should not be used as a yardstick for measuring success or failure or for comparing schools. Please review the online SHI Privacy Information.

Overall process flow

Create an account for your team

The first step in using the SHI is to create an account for your team. Members of your team can log into the system at any time by using the account information. For more information on creating an account and registering your team, refer to Logging into the online SHI.

Create your SHI

After creating an account, the next step is to create a SHI. This involves assigning a name to your SHI, indicating your school level, and selecting the health topics to be included. The health topics determine the questions that will be used for the assessment. In addition, the assessment will include cross-cutting questions that are more general in nature. For more information on starting your assessment, refer to Creating a SHI.

Answering discussion questions

The SHI is structured around CDC's eight-component model of a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). The discussion questions are displayed in eight modules according to the topics you selected. These modules correspond to the CSHP's eight components. Read the questions carefully and select the answer that best describes your school. If a question does not apply to your school, you can designate it as not applicable. If you are not sure or need more information before you can answer the question, you can skip the question and return to it at another time. Whenever available, publication resources related to the questions are displayed below each question.You do not have to answer all the questions in a module. For more information, refer to Answering Discussion Questions.

Understanding your scorecards

The system assigns scores based on your responses to the questions. There are scorecards for each module and an overall scorecard. Use the module scorecards to identify each module's strengths and weaknesses and to identify areas for improvement. Module scorecards can be used as the basis for your preliminary discussions. Use the overall scorecard to view your scores from the eight modules and to identify your overall strengths and weaknesses. For more information on understanding your scorecards, refer to Understanding your module scorecards and Understanding your overall scorecard.

Planning for improvement

You can use your module and overall scorecards to help draft plans for improvement. After identifying your strengths and weaknesses in each module, brainstorm actions for improving the weaknesses. After completing your overall scorecard, you can develop an action plan that will include steps for completing the actions, assign individuals to take responsibility for completing each step, and assign a completion date for each step. For more information on module and overall scorecards, refer to Planning by module and Planning for overall improvement.

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