Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan

Steering Committee: Altarum Institute American Cancer Society American Heart Association Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Community Policy Action Team* Education Policy Action Team* Health, Family, and Child Care Services Policy Action Team* Henry Ford Health System Michigan Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance Michigan Chapter of the American College of Cardiology Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development* Michigan Department of Community Health* Michigan Department of Education* Michigan Department of Human Services* Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs* Michigan Department of Transportation* Michigan Fitness Foundation Michigan Health & Hospital Association Michigan Soft Drink Association Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems University of Michigan C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital YMCA State Alliance of Michigan *Ex-Officio

Advocates for Healthy Weight in Children

July 2013 Newsletter

House Passes Changes to High School Graduation Requirements On June 6, the Michigan House of Representatives passed legislation that would enact significant changes to Michigans Merit Standard Curriculum and alternative Personal Curriculum that high school students must complete in order to graduate. House Bills 4465 (McBroom, R-Vulcan) and 4466 (Johnson, R-Clare) would amend the merit curriculum to eliminate the foreign language requirement and modify required credits for health and physical education. Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan has been very concerned with HB 4465 which would allow for extracurricular sports or extracurricular activities that involve physical activity to be substituted for this half credit in lieu of a traditional physical education course. When HB 4465 was considered by the House Education Committee in May, Rep. Tom Hooker (R-Byron Center) was successful in efforts to adopt an amendment that would remove the substitution allowance for physical education. Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan was a very strong supporter of this amendment. However, when the bill reached the House floor, additional amendments were adopted that removed the Hooker Amendment and reverted back to much of the original bill language. The House then passed the bill on an 81-26 vote, sending it to the Senate. While Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan is not sure when the Senate could take up this issue, we continue to strongly advocate for the Hooker Amendment language to be re-inserted into the bill. While HKHM values extracurricular activities such as marching band and high school sports, they are simply not an equivalent for a quality physical education curriculum. Comprehensive, standards based physical education curriculums are designed by some of the best minds in kinesiology, motor development research, and instructional design. Not unlike a math or science curriculum, they follow specific lesson plans with students learning and demonstrating competencies that are measureable and aligned with national standards. Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan supports an increase of health and physical education in the high school setting to one full credit each during a students time in grades 9-12. Health and physical education play a vital role in helping lay a solid and healthy foundation for Michigan children. Not only has research shown that health and physical education help combat childhood obesity, but there is also a link between these subjects and improved academic performance. Now is the time to strengthen health and physical education in our state, not weaken our standards.

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Advocates for Healthy Weight in Children
We encourage all of our HKHM partners to begin reaching out to your Senators about the importance of physical education. We need you to help show that physical education standards for students are too important to weaken. If you could spare a few minutes to contact your Senator, please do so. You can find name and contact information for your Senator by visiting the Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan website at www.healthykidshealthymich.com.

2013 Policy Priority: Coordinated School Health Teams (CSHT) Throughout 2013, the HKHM Newsletter will feature details on one of the coalitions major policy priorities: Coordinated School Health Teams (CSHT). In this issue, we take a look at the process to form a CSHT and how they can be effective in the community. Over the years, many studies have shown that teaching kids healthy living habits early on in childhood is much more effective than attempts to change unhealthy living habits that develop well into adulthood. Placing emphasis on educating children about healthy practices can make a huge impact on the fight to prevent obesity and many other chronic health disorders. The Coordinated School Health (CSH) model takes a wide-ranging approach to develop, promote and maintain the health and well-being of students. Last month, we looked at the eight components of the Coordinated School Health Framework. These components play a major role in the CSH process, which is outlined below: Form a Team: convene a team of members committed to school health and able to represent all eight components of coordinated school health. Assess: conduct assessments to gather data on student and staff health Develop & Implement Action Plan: utilizing assessment data to develop a plan and implement strategies designed to address one or more of the needs identified. Evaluate: conduct evaluation to determine impact of strategies implemented and make necessary changes based on results. Re-visit Action Plan or Re-Assess: either implement additional strategies from the action plan or conduct new assessments to determine new strategies.

An effective CSHT constantly oversees policies and practices within a school or school district that relate to the eight components of school health. Teams should strive to ensure that all eight components work together in a way that supports student achievement. In this type of healthy environment, students are able to learn and practice healthy living choices that help them succeed in the classroom and also develop healthy habits to take into the real world. One way schools can be effective is to work not only with school leaders but also with the surrounding community to promote a healthy living environment. By working on this larger scale and encouraging community-wide participation, a healthy school

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Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan

Advocates for Healthy Weight in Children
environment is created by utilizing the family and community involvement for an accessible and shared school culture that improves the physical and social/emotional health of all students. An effective CSHT makes sure that overall school health is a top priority of administrators and sees health as a necessity to ensure students are not only motivated, but able to learn. To be most effective, a CSHT never considers their work done. While different schools, students, and communities all have unique characteristics, needs and resources that may look different from other Coordinated School Health Teams, over time they will oversee a broad set of activities designed to touch all areas of the school through numerous programs that promote health. Some of these programs may be a commitment to teach quality health education and physical education courses that are taught by certified teachers or incorporating physical activity into the daily classroom setting and out-of-school time. There are many different ways Coordinated School Health Teams can implement programs that best fit the needs of their school and community, but no matter what the school or community, all Coordinated School Health Teams have one characteristic in common. They all have an organized effort that supports all of their students as they grow up safe and healthy and learn to become successful productive adults. Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan will continue to feature Coordinated School Health Teams and the Coordinated School Health Concept in future newsletters. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about Coordinated School Health, please visit the HKHM website or contact HKHM at healthykidshealthymi@gmail.com Study Shows Schools Can Play Major Role in Kids Health A report written by the Institute of Medicine emphasized the distressing growth of youths sedentary lifestyle. Their estimates show that only about half of youth meet the national recommendation of 60 minutes of daily vigorous or moderate intensity physical activity. Much of this may be attributed to the decline of physical education in school. Considering that young people spend much of their time in school, expanding physical education programs would help a student maintain good health throughout their lives. Furthermore, a growing body of evidence suggests that children who are more active demonstrate stronger academic skills, leading to a student who is both physically and mentally fit. To this end, physical education presents an opportunity to strengthen the academic abilities of students while ensuring better health. However, these goals do not come without challenges. Physical education has received several cuts over the years in the form of teacher lay-offs and poor equipment. Many schools are not able to provide suitable environments for exercise due to budgetary constraints. These cuts may be drawn back to the increased emphasis on reading and mathematics due to No Child Left Behind legislation. Standardized testing has encouraged schools to only focus on certain areas of a childs development,

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Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan

Advocates for Healthy Weight in Children
regardless of the benefits to a childs growth. As such, physical education has been met with increased budgetary scrutiny over the years. To combat this, the Institute of Medicine, at the urging of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has examined the status of physical education efforts in schools, and has recommended a few key initiatives to pursue. Central to these recommendations is the expansion of physical activity as a core curriculum. Schools would provide access to at least 60 minutes per day of vigorous or moderate-intensity physical activity, and teachers would be encouraged to tie physical activity into their lesson plans. Additionally, schools would expand before- and after-school exercise opportunities to better accommodate for a curriculum that emphasizes a physically healthy lifestyle. In short, these changes would allow students to improve their physical and mental fitness through improvements to physical education. To read the full report from the Institute of Medicine, please click here.
Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan is a coalition dedicated to reducing childhood obesity in Michigan through strategic policy initiatives while working with state government leaders. HKHM is comprised of executive-level decision makers from more than 150 organizations statewide dedicated to addressing childhood obesity and improving the health of Michigans youngest residents. These organizations represent government, public and private sectors, school districts, health care and non-profit organizations.

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