Parents for Healthy Schools
Parents have a powerful role in supporting children’s health and learning. Engaged parents help guide their children successfully through school, advocate for their children, and can help shape a healthy school environment.1 CDC has developed a set of resources called Parents for Healthy Schools to help schools and school groups (e.g., parent teacher associations (PTA), parent teacher organizations (PTO), school wellness committees) engage parents to create healthy school environments.
These resources will:
- Educate parents about
- School nutrition environment and services.
- School-based physical education and physical activity.
- Managing chronic health conditions in school settings.
- Provide parents with practical strategies and actions to improve the school health environment.
- Provide suggestions for ways to track progress in engaging parents in changing the school health environment.
Parent engagement in schools is defined as parents and school staff working together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of children and adolescents.2, 3 Parent engagement in schools is a shared responsibility in which schools and other community agencies and organizations are committed to reaching out to engage parents in meaningful ways, and parents are committed to actively supporting their children’s and adolescents’ learning and development.
When parents are engaged in their children’s school activities, their children get better grades, choose healthier behaviors, and have better social skills.4 In addition, school health activities are more successful when parents are involved.5
Drawing from research and best practices from schools across the country, the CDC created strategies for parent engagement in school health to give schools a framework for engaging parents in school health activities. Below are the three aspects of the parent engagement framework:
- Connecting with parents.
- Engaging parents in school health activities.
- Sustaining parent engagement in school health.
Using this framework, CDC in collaboration with other key partners developed Parents for Healthy Schools.
- Parents for Healthy Schools: A Guide for Getting Parents Involved from K-12 [PDF 9.3 MB]—Provides an overview of a healthy school environment with a focus on the school nutrition environment and services, physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions in schools; an overview of the framework for engaging parents in school health; and suggestions for how to use the resources.
- Parents for Healthy Schools: Making a Difference in Your Child’s School PowerPoint Presentation [PDF – 7 MB] [PPT 9 MB]—Makes the case for healthy school environments, provides suggestions for improvement, and identifies ways parents can take action. An evaluation form [PDF – 2 MB] is included.
- Ideas for Parents—Share ideas for how parents can take action to improve school health environments:
- Check-in Questions [PDF – 1.4 MB]—Identifies ways to track progress in engaging parents in changing the school health environment.
- Use the Guide to identify ways to deliver the PowerPoint Presentation and Ideas for Parents and track parent engagement using the check-in questions.
- Deliver the PowerPoint Presentation to parents through PTA/PTO meetings, school wellness committee, or other networks such as the National Network of Partnership Schools.
- Give parents the Ideas for Parents to share ways they can become involved in making changes in the school health environment.
- Look for signs of change and collect parent feedback using the check-in questions and the evaluation form for the PowerPoint Presentation.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2012.
- Epstein JL. School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools Second Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 2011.
- Harvard university. National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group: Recommendations for Federal Policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project; 2009.
- Resnick MD, Bearman PS, Blum RW, Bauman KE, Harris KM, Jones J, et al. Protecting adolescents from harm. Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1997;278(10):823–832.
- Ornelas IJ, Perreira KM, Ayala GX. Parental influences on adolescent physical activity: a longitudinal study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2007;4(3):1–10.
| Schools provide students with opportunities to learn about and practice healthy eating. The school nutrition environment refers to the foods and beverages that are available to students throughout the school day, as well as information and messages about food and nutrition that students encounter on school grounds.
Ideas for Parents provides information and suggestions for how parents can get involved in the following aspects of the school nutrition environment and services: |
| Schools can create an environment that offers many opportunities for students to be physically active throughout the school day. A Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program increases physical activity opportunities before, during, and after school and increase students’ overall physical activity and health.
Ideas for Parents provides information and suggestions for how parents can get involved in the following aspects of physical education and physical activity that align with a comprehensive school physical activity program: |
| Schools can support students with chronic conditions to be healthy and ready to learn. Many schools offer health services and may have a full-time registered nurse or other health staff to help students with emergencies and manage health conditions, like asthma and diabetes. Some school districts may have school-based health centers that can deliver direct medical, dental, nutritional, and mental health services to students and sometimes their families.
Ideas for Parents provides information and suggestions about how parents can support schools in managing students with chronic conditions in areas including the following: |
The purpose of the Parents for Healthy Schools module is to provide resources to motivate and educate parents to be part of creating a healthy school environment.
The course provides guidance on how to:
- Use and share resources developed for Parents for Healthy Schools.
- Use the parent engagement framework of connecting, engaging, and sustaining.
- Provide ways for parents to help create a healthy school environment.
| Promote the resources for Parents for Healthy Schools to your partners and constituents. Download the Parents for Healthy Schools Promotion Kit [PDF – 1 MB] for information to share in your organization’s newsletter, social media outlets, blog, or listserv. | |
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- Parents for Healthy Schools: A Guide for Getting Parents Involved from K-12 [PDF 9.3 MB] —Provides an overview of a healthy school environment with a focus on the school nutrition environment and services, physical education and physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions in schools; an overview of the framework for engaging parents in school health; and suggestions for how to use the resources.
- Parents for Healthy Schools: Making a Difference in Your Child’s School PowerPoint Presentation [PDF – 4.3 MB] [PDF – 9.9 MB] —Makes the case for healthy school environments, provides suggestions for improvement, and identifies ways parents can take action. An evaluation form [PDF – 2 MB] is included.
- Ideas for Parents—Share ideas for how parents can take action to improve school health environments:
- Check-in Questions [PDF – 1.4 MB]—Identifies ways to track progress in engaging parents in changing the school health environment.
Who Developed These Resources?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with:
In 2012, CDC released Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health, which defines and describes engagement between parents and school staff and identifies specific strategies for all three aspects of parent engagement in schools: connect, engage, and sustain. In addition, use CDC’s Promoting Parent Engagement in School Health: A Facilitator’s Guide for Staff Development to help you develop a plan for engaging parents in school health activities. Both of these resources provide the evidence-based framework for Parents for Healthy Schools.
- Overview Brochure [PDF – 4 MB]
- For School Districts and School Administrators [PDF – 872 KB]
- For Teachers and Other School Staff [PDF – 765 KB]
- For Parents and Families [PDF – 741 KB]
