What Happens When Schools Actually Follow Their Wellness Policies?
What Happens When Schools Actually Follow Their Wellness Policies?
An overlooked CDC report from 2014 shows how parents, teachers, nurses, and school leaders helped turn existing wellness policies into meaningful changes for children.
Summary
I recently found a report published by the Centers for Disease Control in 2014 that I wish every school administrator, teacher, and PTA leader would read. It documents 11 schools and districts across the United States that successfully put their written wellness policies into practice.
The CDC found several recurring factors that helped these schools succeed. They included a dedicated person willing to lead the effort, wellness committees involving parents and community members, support from school leadership, and regular communication and evaluation.
Some schools had adopted wellness policies that employees barely knew existed. Others struggled with limited funding, resistance to change, or difficulty maintaining new programs. The examples demonstrate how schools worked through these challenges, often because one interested person took the initiative and received the support needed to follow through.
I found this encouraging because so many of the solutions described in the report are still available today. Schools can learn from programs that others have already developed, including healthier fundraising, nutrition education, school gardens, and opportunities for parents to participate.
Original CDC report:
Putting Local School Wellness Policies into Action: Stories from School Districts and Schools (2014)
Why did the CDC publish this report?
The report was published in 2014 by the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Population Health.
It resulted from a collaboration between staff from the CDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, the U.S. Department of Education, and Danya International, a research and consulting organization.
Federal legislation had already required participating school districts to adopt wellness policies, yet there was considerable variation in how those policies were written, communicated, and implemented.
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 established federal local school wellness-policy requirements, and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 strengthened the framework for school nutrition and wellness.
Schools play an important role in supporting children's health because students spend much of their childhood there. They have opportunities to eat nutritious meals, participate in physical activity, and develop habits that can influence their health throughout their lives.
The CDC report also references research connecting healthy eating and physical activity with academic performance, classroom attention, memory, behavior, and school attendance. I find that relationship especially important because nutrition and education are so closely connected.
By 2014, many districts already had wellness policies. Federal agencies wanted to understand how schools were implementing those policies and what could be learned from schools making progress.
Researchers interviewed school representatives between March 2012 and February 2013, ultimately collecting 11 stories from urban, suburban, and rural communities with different student populations and economic circumstances.
They examined the changes schools had made, who helped make those changes possible, what resources they used, and which challenges they encountered.
The case studies were based on information reported by participating schools and districts. They provide practical examples of implementation, although they were not independent evaluations of long-term student health outcomes.
The importance of having a wellness champion
One of the strongest recurring themes in the report was the importance of having someone genuinely interested in improving school health who was willing to keep the effort moving forward.
The CDC describes these people as wellness champions.
In different schools, that person might be a school nurse, teacher, superintendent, food service director, or community member.
These individuals helped start conversations, coordinate efforts, identify resources, and maintain progress when challenges arose.
I found this particularly interesting because it closely resembles the type of volunteer position that many school PTAs and wellness committees already use.
A wellness champion helps connect people, information, and opportunities across a school community. The person can coordinate interested volunteers, communicate district guidance, and help identify where additional support is needed.
The report also found that wellness councils played an important role in successful implementation. These groups included school staff, administrators, parents, students, and community partners who could help coordinate activities and evaluate progress.
Having someone responsible for communicating the policy, encouraging participation, and following up on goals gives schools a way to keep wellness efforts active throughout the year.
A Wellness Champion Can Be a Parent, Too.
One aspect of the CDC report that I especially appreciate is its recognition that wellness champions can come from different parts of the school community. They may be teachers, nurses, administrators, food service employees, or parents and other community members who take an interest in improving children's health.
That last part is particularly important to me because I am one of those parents.
I discovered my school district's wellness policy while researching concerns about nutrition education, classroom food rewards, and the types of food being distributed at school-sponsored events. I was excited to find that the district had already adopted a policy addressing many of the same things I was interested in improving.
I began gathering resources, contacting education specialists, researching successful programs in other districts, and offering to volunteer my time. I even proposed establishing a Health & Wellness representative within our PTA, which seemed like a natural way to connect the school community with the resources and recommendations that already exist.
The CDC's report makes it clear how valuable these interested individuals can be. Several of its featured programs began because someone noticed an opportunity, cared enough to investigate it, and brought others together to make improvements.
I would love to see more schools recognize parents as a resource in this process. Many parents bring professional expertise, personal interests, community connections, and a willingness to volunteer. Creating a way for those people to contribute seems like an opportunity schools should be exploring.
One Colorado district discovered that employees didn't even know the policy existed.
Salida School District in Colorado particularly caught my attention.
In 2008, a new school nurse began working in the district and discovered that most employees were unaware that the district already had a wellness policy.
The policy had been adopted in 2006, but there was no wellness committee responsible for putting it into practice.
The nurse took the initiative to organize a wellness committee with parents, teachers, principals, school nurses, community members, and the superintendent.
The group used the CDC's School Health Index to assess existing practices and identify opportunities for improvement.
The district eventually developed a Garden-to-Cafeteria program, trained food service staff to prepare more meals from scratch, introduced additional fruits and vegetables, and incorporated garden-based education into the curriculum.
Students could grow food in the school garden and then see those ingredients used in their cafeteria meals. The district also replaced certain less nutritious cafeteria items with healthier options.
The report describes an increase in average daily elementary school lunch participation from 180 students to more than 300.
I can imagine many school districts encountering similar circumstances today. A policy may have been adopted years earlier, but staff and families may have received little information about what it means or who is responsible for carrying it out.
In Salida's case, one interested employee recognized the problem, brought people together, and helped establish a structure that could support improvements across the district.
Burlington, Vermont, involved parents in making the decisions.
Another example I appreciated came from Burlington School District in Vermont.
In 2010, the district created a wellness team that included parents, teachers, a principal, food service representatives, school nurses, a school board member, nutrition professionals, public health representatives, and community members.
The district invited people from across the community to help revise its wellness policy.
Afterward, individual schools established wellness teams that met monthly to review implementation, discuss challenges, and improve their programs.
Parents participated in determining wellness goals and developing school activities.
The district also developed community partnerships that helped provide fresh local foods, cooking classes, nutrition education, gardens, and healthier after-school snacks.
Students participated in activities such as cooking competitions and lessons that combined nutrition with math. For example, children compared the costs of preparing hummus with dried versus canned beans and learned about the distances different foods traveled to reach the grocery store.
According to the CDC report, participation in the district's school meal program more than doubled after the changes.
I love the idea of incorporating nutrition into practical activities that children can actually participate in. Cooking, gardening, visiting farmers' markets, and learning about food production give children opportunities to understand where their food comes from and develop useful skills.
Burlington also demonstrated how schools can invite parents and community organizations to contribute expertise, resources, and ideas.
A Pennsylvania district showed how much communication matters.
Downingtown Area School District in Pennsylvania provides another useful example, especially for parents who struggle to understand how school decisions are communicated.
The district established a wellness advisory committee that included parents, teachers, principals, representatives from several district departments, community organizations, school board members, and a representative from a parent teacher organization.
Individual schools then created their own school health councils, which developed improvement plans and reported their progress to the district.
The district actively shared information through newsletters, school websites, emails, phone calls, Back-to-School Night materials, and school board meetings.
Each school also had a wellness education center providing monthly nutrition tips and information for families.
These efforts helped families and staff understand the changes being introduced and how they could participate.
The district monitored progress and made its wellness reports available to the public.
During the 2011–2012 school year, it established 15 school health councils with 145 members. The report states that wellness activities reached 11,786 students and 1,495 staff members.
The superintendent, Dr. Larry Mussoline, attributed overcoming resistance in part to regular communication, responsiveness to families and school personnel, and leadership from principals.
I think this is a particularly valuable example because school traditions and established procedures can make change difficult. Downingtown created opportunities for people to ask questions, understand the goals, and participate in the process.
The regular communication also helped individual schools understand what was expected of them, while giving the district a way to monitor whether the policy was being implemented.
Oakland created wellness champions at individual schools.
The CDC report also includes an example from Oakland Unified School District in California.
In 2012, Oakland established a district wellness council with school staff, district representatives, parents, and community partners.
Because the district served more than 45,000 students at the time, its leaders recognized the importance of having people responsible for wellness activities at individual campuses.
They developed a wellness champion program that supported a staff member at each school in promoting nutrition education, physical activity, and healthier school environments.
The champions received stipends through outside funding, developed action plans, identified resources, and met quarterly to share their experiences and learn from one another.
This seems like an especially useful model for larger school districts, where individual schools may have different needs but can benefit from sharing information and resources.
A districtwide network can help schools avoid duplicating work and give individual representatives access to people who understand the policy and have experience implementing programs.
Oakland also partnered with local public health organizations to create classroom nutrition activities that teachers could complete in about 15 minutes.
Through other partnerships, schools introduced fresh produce education, gardens, cooking demonstrations, taste tests, and affordable produce markets for families.
The report states that the district's efforts helped 56 schools add salad bars and supported school produce markets at 22 elementary schools.
The district was able to provide support and resources across many campuses while allowing individual schools to develop activities appropriate for their communities.
Farmington, Minnesota, worked with PTAs to improve fundraising.
Farmington Area Public Schools offers another example that I would love to see more parent organizations explore.
The district's wellness committee included parents, teachers, school staff, public health representatives, and other community members.
It developed nutrition education activities, food tastings, and healthier options for school meals and snacks.
One particularly interesting partnership involved Valley Natural Foods, a local cooperative that helped elementary schools organize healthier fundraising and community activities.
The cooperative donated money for cooking demonstrations, scavenger hunts, and food tastings. Its staff also worked directly with parent teacher associations to promote fundraising alternatives such as fruit box sales and fun runs.
I appreciate how the district approached fundraising as an opportunity to support wellness. Schools still needed to raise money, and the community explored activities that could accomplish that goal while encouraging healthier habits.
Students were involved too. Some helped operate snack shops and reviewed nutrition labels as part of transitioning to healthier products.
The report also describes schools incorporating nutrition education into morning announcements and student-created cooking segments.
I think these programs would be enjoyable for children because they offer opportunities to participate in decision-making, develop practical skills, and learn about food through activities.
Schools found creative ways to make nutrition education enjoyable.
Several other examples in the report demonstrate what schools can accomplish when they make wellness education practical and engaging.
At the Academy for Global Citizenship in Chicago, students helped plant, maintain, harvest, and prepare foods from a school garden. Teachers incorporated nutrition into regular lessons, and the school chef invited children to taste new foods before they appeared on lunch menus.
Parents were also invited to after-school tasting events where they could sample and vote on potential menu items.
I love the idea of allowing students and parents to help shape the menu. Their participation could also give cafeteria staff useful feedback about which foods children enjoy and how recipes might be improved.
At DREAM Charter School in New York, the wellness council included school leaders, a family engagement representative, a nurse, parents, and community organizations. Students learned about where food comes from, visited farmers' markets, and participated in hands-on nutrition education.
The school also worked with Cornell Cooperative Extension to provide free nutrition classes for families and opportunities to visit local markets.
High Point Academy in Colorado created a wellness team that included six parents and three community members alongside school staff. The team met monthly, invited regular feedback from families, and helped introduce wellness classes, a school garden, and student-run produce markets.
In Jennings, Missouri, a pediatrician helped initiate partnerships that brought nutrition education and school gardens into the district. The effort included a full-time health and wellness coordinator and collaboration with local health professionals and organizations.
At New Albany Elementary in Mississippi, school leaders used assessment results to develop weekly nutrition lessons, improve physical education, and communicate information about healthy breakfasts to families.
These schools had different resources and needs, but they all found ways to bring interested people together, establish practical goals, and make wellness part of children's everyday experiences.
The CDC also acknowledged that changing school culture takes time.
The authors identified several challenges that schools continued to face.
Funding was one important issue. Many of the featured programs benefited from grants, community partnerships, or outside donations. Those resources helped launch initiatives, but they also raised questions about how schools could sustain the programs when funding ended.
Evaluation was another challenge. Schools frequently had positive reports from staff, parents, and students, but relatively little quantitative evidence demonstrating whether the activities had improved long-term student health outcomes.
The CDC also recognized that every school operates in a different environment. A small rural school may have opportunities and limitations that differ significantly from those of a large urban district.
The report found several recurring factors associated with successful implementation.
Schools benefited from having someone actively champion the policy, a committee providing structure and accountability, parents involved in setting goals, students participating in activities, and community partners contributing resources.
These examples demonstrate the importance of giving people clear responsibilities and opportunities to participate. School policies require ongoing communication, coordination, evaluation, and support to become part of everyday practices.
This research was published more than a decade ago.
The report was published in 2014, based on examples collected in 2012 and 2013.
Federal agencies were already documenting these challenges and solutions more than a decade ago.
We have known for years that school wellness policies benefit from designated leaders, parent involvement, committees, clear expectations, and regular evaluation. We also have detailed examples showing how different schools developed those structures and made improvements.
That makes me wonder why parents today can still encounter schools where wellness policies are difficult to find, responsibility is unclear, and opportunities to participate are limited.
I don't think every school needs to introduce gardens, hire additional staff, or organize elaborate programs.
Some of the changes described in the report would be fairly simple to introduce. Schools invited parents to participate in planning, provided regular nutrition information, and established committees that met throughout the year. They gave students opportunities to taste foods and offer feedback, and they encouraged teachers to incorporate short wellness activities into existing lessons.
They also assigned responsibility for keeping the work moving forward.
Many school communities could begin exploring these ideas using their existing staff, volunteers, communication systems, and community partnerships.
What I would love parents and schools to take from this report
I think this report deserves to be shared much more widely, particularly with school administrators, PTA leaders, teachers, and parents who are interested in nutrition education.
It provides a useful starting point for anyone who has discovered that their district has a wellness policy and wants to understand how it could be implemented.
I would encourage parents to read the examples and consider which ideas might fit their own schools.
A district could establish a network of wellness representatives who meet periodically and share resources. PTAs could invite a nutrition educator to speak with families or help develop healthier fundraising ideas.
Teachers might appreciate ready-made materials that can be incorporated into lessons without requiring substantial preparation. Families could receive simple guidance on classroom celebrations and food donations, along with opportunities to provide feedback.
Schools could also make their wellness assessments more visible and explain what improvements they're working toward.
I recognize that staff and volunteers already have considerable responsibilities, and each school will have different priorities and limitations.
Providing existing resources and welcoming people who are interested in helping could make many of these improvements easier to accomplish.
The CDC's examples show how much can happen when a school gives interested people a meaningful opportunity to participate.
Many of the improvements began with ordinary people who recognized an opportunity and cared enough to do something about it.
A school nurse noticed that employees didn't know their wellness policy existed. A pediatrician recognized a health concern in his community. Parents volunteered to participate in school wellness councils. Teachers and food service staff found creative ways to make nutrition education more engaging.
Those individuals brought their experience and interests to the school community, where they could collaborate with others and receive the support needed to develop programs.
I would love to see more schools recognize the value of that kind of initiative.
We already have federal requirements, state guidance, evaluation tools, training resources, and decades of examples showing what is possible.
I hope more schools will make those resources accessible and welcome the parents, teachers, and community members who are interested in helping put them to use.
Thirteen Years Later, Why Are Schools Still Struggling With the Same Problems?
The CDC collected these case studies in 2012 and 2013 and published the report in 2014. That means schools have had access to these examples and recommendations for more than a decade.
I find that remarkable because my own experience in 2026 sounds surprisingly similar to some of the problems described in the report.
The Salida School District in Colorado discovered in 2008 that most employees didn't even know their district had a wellness policy. A school nurse helped establish a committee that brought together staff, parents, administrators, and community members to begin implementing it.
Almost two decades after that experience, I find myself wondering whether the people organizing activities at my own school even know our district's wellness policy exists.
Our school community continues to organize donut breakfasts and distribute food as classroom rewards. I've also seen PTA-sponsored activities involving Ring Pops, cotton candy, and other sugary treats, even as I have been trying to introduce a conversation about nutrition education and healthier alternatives.
When I offered to help establish a Health & Wellness representative within the PTA, I was told the organization didn't want to take on nutrition. The proposal was ultimately voted down.
I recognize that a PTA can decide which positions and committees it wants to establish. However, I find it difficult to reconcile an organization declining to participate in nutrition education while continuing to make decisions about the food it purchases, promotes, and distributes to children.
Those decisions are already influencing the nutritional environment at school.
I've also raised concerns through school leadership and other parent groups associated with school activities, but I haven't found a clear or productive way to move the conversation forward.
I cannot say whether everyone involved has read the policy, and I don't want to assume that people are intentionally disregarding it. My experience has been that the existing practices continue while attempts to introduce wellness education or discuss alternatives have encountered resistance.
That concerns me because these policies were developed for a reason, and the CDC has been documenting practical ways to implement them for years.
It seems particularly unfortunate when a parent who has researched the policy, identified resources, and offered to volunteer is unable to find a meaningful way to participate.
I think there is an important difference between a school lacking the resources to implement a program and a school community being reluctant to consider the help and information already available.
The CDC report describes schools that welcomed interested individuals, organized wellness committees, consulted parents, and developed activities appropriate for their communities. Those examples demonstrate how schools can make progress even when funding and staff time are limited.
I would love to see that same willingness to collaborate become more common.
Your PTA Is Not the Only Way to Get Involved.
One thing I hope other parents take away from my experience is that a local PTA does not have the final say over whether parents can participate in school wellness initiatives.
A PTA may decide against creating a wellness position or taking on a particular project. That decision doesn't eliminate the school district's responsibilities under its wellness policy.
Parents can contact their school principal, district nutrition services department, student services administrators, or the person designated to oversee wellness-policy implementation.
They can also ask whether the district has a wellness committee or advisory group that welcomes parent and community participation.
I would encourage parents to begin by reading their district's policy and most recent wellness assessment. Those documents can help clarify what the district has committed to doing, which responsibilities have been assigned, and whether previous assessments identified areas needing improvement.
If a particular school practice appears inconsistent with the policy, parents can raise that concern directly with the appropriate district administrator and request clarification in writing.
When concerns remain unresolved, parents can ask about the district's formal complaint procedures. Depending on the circumstances and applicable rules, a concern about wellness-policy implementation may be appropriate for administrative review or a formal complaint. Not every disagreement or unpopular food choice constitutes a legal violation, so it is useful to identify the specific policy provision and the practice that raises concern.
In my case, I eventually submitted a formal complaint asking the district to investigate several questions about wellness-policy implementation, staff guidance, accountability, and parent participation. That investigation is ongoing, and I hope it leads to clearer expectations and resources for everyone involved.
I would much rather see schools address these questions collaboratively, before families feel they need to use formal complaint procedures.
The goal is to improve the environment children experience throughout the school day and to make it easier for teachers, staff, parents, and volunteers to work toward shared goals.
What continues to surprise me is how much of this guidance already exists.
We have federal wellness requirements, state policies, training materials, assessment tools, and examples of schools that have successfully created healthier environments with the help of interested parents and community members.
The CDC was documenting these approaches 13 years ago, and many of the same challenges are still being raised today.
I hope more parents discover that these resources are available and realize they can participate in the process, even when their first suggestion isn't welcomed.
I also hope more school leaders recognize that a parent asking questions and offering to help can be exactly the kind of wellness champion their school needs.
Original Report and Further Resources
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014)
Putting Local School Wellness Policies into Action: Stories from School Districts and Schools.
Published by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Population Health, with contributions from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, the U.S. Department of Education, and Danya International.
The case studies were collected between March 2012 and February 2013 and document 11 schools and districts across the United States.
Full report, including all 11 school examples (PDF):
https://www.cdc.gov/assessing-improving-school-health/media/pdfs/SchoolWellnessInAction.pdf
CDC — Local School Wellness Policies
https://www.cdc.gov/assessing-improving-school-health/wellness/
CDC — School Health Index
https://www.cdc.gov/assessing-improving-school-health/shi/index.html
WellSAT — Wellness School Assessment Tool
USDA — Local School Wellness Policy
