School Nutrition Environment State Policy Classification System and Data

Data Set Description

Topics Covered: The School Nutrition Environment State Policy Classification System (SNESPCS) addresses eleven areas:

1. Competitive foods-a la carte in cafeterias
2. Competitive foods-vending machines
3. Competitive foods-other venues (i.e., school stores, canteens, etc.)
4. Reimbursable school meals
5. School meal environment (i.e., meal scheduling time and length requirements)
6. Food service director qualifications
7. Coordinating or advisory council requirements
8. Nutrition education
9. Marketing: advertising and promotion restrictions
10. Marketing: preferential pricing
11. Body mass index (BMI) screening

The competitive foods, reimbursable school meal, school meal environment, and nutrition education policies are classified according to grade level requirements at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Grade-level classifications were not made for the remaining topics (i.e., food service director qualifications, coordinating/advisory council requirements, marketing: advertising and promotion, marketing: preferential pricing, and BMI screening). A series of dichotomous tracking variables that might potentially enhance or inhibit implementation or impact of the individual policy provisions are also coded for all of the variables except for reimbursable school meals and the school meal environment variables.

State-level coverage: Each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Types of policies included: Statutory laws as enacted by the state legislatures and administrative laws promulgated by state administrative agencies.

Current data availability: Coding of policies in effect as of December 31, 2003.

Current update plans: The SNEPCS is expected to be revised to reflect recommendations issued by the Institute of Medicine in 2007 in "Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the Way toward Healthier Youth". Policies effective in 2007 will be coded using the revised system. Efforts are currently underway to code and classify the 2004 through 2006 policies. These data will be posted on this site as they become available.

Files Available for Download

School Nutrition Environment State Policy Classification System (SNESPCS)
SNESPCS Tool (doc)
SNESPCS Tool (pdf)

SNESPCS Baseline 2003 Data and Codebook

"Bridging the Gap: Research Informing Practice and Policy for Healthy Youth Behavior," a supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

See also: Physical Education and Recess State Policy Classification System and Data