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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion |
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The health and safety habits of students are influenced by the entire school environment. Therefore, the SHI has eight different modules, each corresponding to a component of a coordinated school health program:
A team consisting of representatives from different groups within the school—parents, teachers, students, administrators, other staff members, and concerned community members—is responsible for completing eight self-assessment modules. Responses to the items are scored to help you identify your school’s strengths and weaknesses.
The School Health Index includes a Planning for Improvement section to help your school develop an action plan for improving student health. Your school’s results from the SHI can help you include health promotion activities in your overall School Improvement Plan, which will ultimately allow you to develop an ongoing process for monitoring progress and reviewing your recommendations for change.
The School Health Index is your school’s self-assessment tool, and it should not be used to compare schools or evaluate the staff. There is no such thing as a passing grade on the School Health Index. You should use your SHI scores only to help you understand your school’s strengths and weaknesses and to develop an action plan for improving your promotion and management of health and safety.
The School Health Index is available at no cost and can be completed in as little as 6 hours. Many of the improvements that you’ll want to make after completing the SHI can be done with your existing staff and resources. For those priority actions that do require new resources, your School Health Index results can provide information needed to stimulate school board and community support for school health programs and for funding requests. A small investment of time can pay big dividends in improving students’ well-being, readiness to learn, and prospects for a healthy life.
Promoting healthy and safe behaviors among students is an important part of the fundamental mission of schools: to provide young people with the knowledge and skills to become healthy and productive adults. By promoting health and safety behaviors, schools can increase students’ capacity to learn, reduce absences, and improve physical fitness and mental alertness.
To help schools meet this challenge, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed the School Health Index. This self-assessment and planning guide will enable you to
The fourth edition of the School Health Index addresses behaviors that play a critical role in preventing the leading causes of death, disability, hospitalizations and illness among young people and adults in the United States:
Future editions also will address other health issues that have a major impact on the current and future health of young people, such as
The School Health Index will provide structure and direction to your school’s efforts to improve health and safety policies and programs. First released in 2000, the SHI has been used by schools in nearly every state and in Canada. The SHI is designed for use at the local level. However, with appropriate adaptation, it could be used at the district level as well, especially if the district has only a few schools and those schools have similar policies and programs. School administrators and staff members who have used the SHI have said:
“The School Health Index was easy to use and enabled us to clearly identify what is working and what needs to be improved.”
“It’s a real energizer—it makes you think of ideas that are relatively easy to implement.”
“The school staff had a very positive attitude toward the Index. They liked its comprehensive view of health promotion and its involvement of many different stakeholders.”
To obtain a copy of the School Health Index, choose one of the following options:
When ordering, please specify either the elementary school version or the middle/high school version.
Documents on this page are available in Portable Document Format (PDF). Learn more about viewing and printing these documents with Acrobat Reader.
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reviewed: October 28, 2008
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