To implement the Wellness Policy, the following district specific goals have been established:
Goal 1 – Nutrition Education and Promotion: Schools will provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that help students develop lifelong healthy eating behaviors. The goal(s) for addressing nutrition education and nutrition promotion include the following:
- Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health;
- Ensure nutrition education and promotion are not only part of health education classes, but also integrated into other classroom instruction through subjects such as science, and elective subjects;
- Promote fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, and healthy foods;
- Emphasize caloric balance between food intake and energy expenditure (promotes physical activity/exercise).
Goal 2 – Physical Activity: Schools will provide students and staff with age and grade appropriate opportunities to engage in physical activity that meet federal and state guidelines, including the Iowa Healthy Kids Act. The goal(s) for addressing physical activity include the following:
- Promote the benefits of a physically active lifestyle and help students develop skills to engage in lifelong healthy habits;
- Engage students in moderate to vigorous activity during at least 50 percent of physical education class time;
- Encourage classroom teachers to provide short physical activity breaks (3-5 minutes), as appropriate;
- Offer classroom health education that complements physical education by reinforcing the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a physically active lifestyle;
- Ensure physical activity is not used for or withheld as a punishment
- Afford elementary students with recess according to the following:
- Outdoors as weather and time permits;
- Encourages moderate to vigorous physical activity.
Goal 3 – Other School-Based Activities that Promote Student Wellness: Schools will support student, staff, and parents’ efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle, as appropriate. The goal(s) for addressing other school-based activities that promote student wellness include the following:
- Provide school staff a list of alternative ways to reward children. Foods and beverages will not be used as a reward, or withheld as punishment;
- Promote staff health and wellness;
- Share information about the nutritional content of meals with parents and students;
- Support the consumption of breakfast at school by implementing alternative breakfast options to the extent possible;
- Permit students to bring and carry water bottles filled with water throughout the day;
- Make drinking water available where school meals are served during mealtimes;
- Strive to provide students with at least 10 minutes to eat after sitting down for breakfast and 20 minutes after sitting down for lunch;
- Discourage students from sharing foods or beverages during meal or snack times, given concerns about allergies and dietary needs.
Public Involvement: There is a process for permitting parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the school board, administrators and the public to participate in the development, implementation, and periodic review and update of the policy.
- The district has a local wellness policy committee to advise the district on the development, implementation, and improvement of the school wellness policy;
- The superintendent or superintendent’s designee invites suggestions or comments concerning the development, implementation, and improvement of the school wellness policy. As such, interested persons are encouraged to contact the superintendent or superintendent’s designee.
NOTE: School districts are required by federal law to have at least one specific wellness goal in each of the goal areas identified above. These goal areas include the following: nutrition promotion and education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness. Options have been provided, but districts must remember the sample policy and sample regulation cannot be adopted in the current format. School boards and administration must make a choice for all text in italicized brackets.
NOTE: The Iowa Department of Education has tools and resources available to help districts with progress reports and other aspects of policy implementation and review. Please visit the “School Wellness Policy” section of the Iowa Department of Education’s website, located at: https://www.educateiowa.gov/pk-12/nutrition-programs/school-wellness.
