Core Capacity for Focusing on the Whole Child

When we talk about what schools might do during and even after a pandemic to shift our thinking and prioritize the health and well-being of our kids and staff, I’d suggest considering the pieces I see as core capacity activities. I’ve described these core capacity pieces below.

Stay tuned for a public launch of our new product, called Blaze Approach in which we offer support (professional development and technical assistance) in these areas below, to schools, districts and Departments of Education.

Core Capacity Activity 1: Superintendent Leadership Support

Many districts around the United States have embraced the importance of addressing the whole child through better alignment and integration of health and education. A key piece to their success has been the leadership and consistent messaging of a Superintendent and local school boards that have embraced the importance of educating the whole child.[1] Without clear Superintendent leadership, whole child efforts are not seen as critical to the success of strategic inclusion of student health in the district’s overall priorities, accountability systems and plans.

Core Capacity Activity 2: Infrastructure

A key piece to building school health programs is to integrate health and wellness messages throughout all policies, programs and practices. A systems-change approach by building an infrastructure with leadership support is a key piece to doing this work well.

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“Three key factors advance efforts to align policies, processes, and practices. These include hiring a coordinator at the district and school levels, having collaborative teams address health and learning at the district and school levels, and using data to make decisions and build health outcomes into school and district accountability systems.”

1. District Whole Child Coordinator[1] – Hire a district level Whole Child Coordinator that works to increase collaboration, communication and decrease silos. This person would chair and sustain the District Advisory Wellness Council and increase membership to include young people and guardians/caregivers. This person would work in partnership with the representatives of the ten components within Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention’s and ASCDs Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Framework (WSCC) to bring education and awareness of the importance of collaboration and communication among all components to work collectively to support the whole child. This position should have direct access to school improvement team efforts, development teams and executive leadership teams.

2. Building level Whole Child Coordinators/Champions – Champions at schools will be selected to work part-time as Whole Child Coordinators (pilot or phase-in implementation suggested). This role would include increasing collaboration and communication among the roles of the WSCC framework at the school level as well as chair and sustain School Health Advisory Councils and completion of a school level assessment, such as the School Health Index tool or SHAPE Assessment System.

3. Budget for Wellness – internal and external funding opportunities would be researched to determine what costs would be associated with new activities.

Core Capacity Activity 3: Accountability

To implement the WSCC framework and whole child steps comprehensively, the district council and school councils have the opportunity to integrate plans into school improvement and school accountability systems. Here are some recommendations below.

1. Align whole child efforts to local education accountability systems already in place, i.e., SEL or attendance goals to include whole child indicators. For example, do students have access to breakfast, lunch and recess everyday? Is that included in the schools reporting to the district? How can this indicator be tied to attendance and achievement?

2. Messaging should be consistent and a culture of health should be promoted throughout district and school level communications. Outcomes related to this should be tied to policy efforts.

3. School Principals should be held accountable through whole child indicators as well as implementation of their wellness policy with the support of school level Whole Child Coordinators and the School Health Advisory Councils.

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“School districts and schools can use the WSCC model as a framework for school improvement plans and initiatives. School improvement teams can be structured using representation from each of the components utilized in the model. Doing so can ensure integration of critical outcomes in education and health for students.”

Core Capacity Activity 4: Building Awareness

Education and building awareness of the whole child efforts is the first stage of systems change. Change in a district can be a challenge for a variety of reasons. Effective marketing and communication to build awareness is key to these efforts. Building trust, clarity and setting people up to succeed is essential to this work.

1. Develop a communication plan for whole child efforts, including policies (Wellness Policy) that support the whole child.

2. Educate the entire district (top-down) on the Wellness Policy

3. Offer regular meetings and professional development opportunities (even recorded webinars) for support of implementation of the Wellness Policy

4. Present the Wellness Policy and whole child efforts at the Principals meeting

5. Train principals on importing caregiver/guardian emails

6. Offer opportunities to share success stories

7. Revise the District Wellness Page

Core Capacity Activity 5: Engaging Community and Families

Schools cannot do this work alone. Engaging community partners to provide resources, funding, building space, donations, time has been successful in whole child efforts. Ensuring families feel comfortable interacting with the schools is essential. Bold steps for community partnerships include:

1. Engage district alumni

2. Develop a Caregiver/Guardian University

3. Open programming community after the school day (Community Schools Model)

Core Capacity Activity 6: Empowering Youth

Empowering youth and engaging youth effectively to be part of this work will create buy-in, skill building opportunities and ensure relevance in young peoples’ lives.

1. Student health ambassadors that sit on District Wellness Council and School Health Advisory Councils

Core Capacity Activity 7: Supporting Staff Wellness

OEA Choice Trust, an organization that supports school employees in Oregon, is one of the most recognized School Employee Wellness organizations in the country. Their Blueprint for School Employee Wellness states, Effective wellness programs can help employees take better care of themselves through improved physical fitness, nutrition and foster resilience to buffer the negative effects of stress. Doing so helps lower absenteeism and worker compensation claims and improves morale and energy levels.

Focusing on staff health and well-being. can create buy-in, increased camaraderie, increased presenteeism, decreased absenteeism and save the district substantial dollars. Some of the bold steps include:

1. Partnering with Human Resources to develop a comprehensive staff wellness plan and even tie incentives to wellness efforts

2. Encourage staff to take care of their health holistically (from smoking cessation support to mental health support to being physically active)

3. Offer school and district staff wellness opportunities

 

[1]Chiang RJ, Meagher W, Slade S. How the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model works: creating greater alignment, integration, and collaboration between health and education. J Sch Health. 2015; 85: 775-784.