WellSAT Suite

Evaluates how well community members are empowered as a part of the decision making process for community wellness policies. This includes opportunities for student service learning.

Facilitates healthy eating by providing appropriate food choices, education, and messages. The nutrition environment extends to all school places in which food and beverage access is available (e.g. cafeterias, vending machines, classrooms). School nutrition services provide meals that meet government nutrition standards and the school community supports a healthy nutrition environment. Suggested policy documents for review: district wellness policy.

Promotes a safe and supportive learning environment through attention to social and emotional development and psychosocial aspects of the learning experience. A positive social and emotional school climate fosters student engagement in activities; relationships with peers and adults that are respectful, trusting, and caring; and successful learning. Suggested policy documents for review: bullying policy, student discipline policy, student code of conduct.

Describes comprehensive strategies to improve student physical health. This can include engaging in planned and sequential teaching of the motor skills, knowledge, and behaviors needed for physical activity and fitness, as well as providing students with an opportunity to be physically active throughout the day. Suggested policy documents for review: district wellness policy.

Describes family-school partnerships that support the learning and health needs of students across student developmental periods. Such partnerships work together through shared responsibility of both school staff and families in actively supporting the successful development of students. Suggested policy documents for review: district wellness policy, parent involvement, community relations.

(derived from Physical Environment in the WSCC model) focuses on the physical school building, the land on which it is located, and the areas surrounding it. A healthy school environment includes physical conditions during normal operation as well as renovation, and addresses factors such as ventilation, pollution, lighting, noise, and temperature – in addition to protecting students from physical threats and injuries (e.g. traffic, crime, hazardous materials, pollution). Suggested policy documents for review: cleaning policy, green cleaning policy, school safety, emergency preparation policies, construction/remodeling policies, and pesticide/hazardous material policy.

Involves fostering health in all school staff, as healthy employees are more productive and better able to do their job in attending to student needs. Employee wellness approaches include programs and policies that embrace a continuum of prevention to intervention strategies, and offer personalized health programs such as stress management, improved physical health and nutrition, and risk reduction. Suggested policy documents for review: district wellness policy, tobacco use policy, employee substance use policy, sexual harassment.

Staff and facilities are typically available to help all students with preventive care such as vision and hearing screening, as well as dealing with immediate injuries and first aid. In addition, school health services staff play a large role in the management of student chronic health conditions, including coordinating care and communicating with the student’s family and other health care providers. Suggested policy documents for review: health services, responding to communicable disease, allergy management, overdose prevention, chronic disease management policies of school, and health policies and practices.

(i.e. Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services) are services addressing the social, emotional, behavioral, and overall mental health of students, and extends along a continuum of prevention through intervention strategies that identify and address barriers to learning. School employed professionals such as school psychologists, school counselors, and school social workers provide direct services to individual students and families as well as classes and schools as a whole. In addition, referral and consultation with community providers is important in the coordination of counseling, psychological, and social services. Suggested policy documents for review: suicide prevention, responding to student substance use, student discipline/code of conduct.

Includes planned learning experiences to gain the information and skills needed to make healthy decisions, achieve health literacy, and adopt healthy behaviors. Comprehensive and effective school health education extends appropriately across developmental periods and is based on identified needs and provided in a variety of ways–such as direct instruction, patient visits, and public service announcements. It addresses issues such as personal health, physical activity, nutrition, mental and emotional health, sexual health, violence prevention, tobacco use, and alcohol and drug use. Suggested policy documents for review: curriculum and instruction, sexual health education, substance use prevention policies.

Addresses how healthy behaviors are encouraged in the school environment. This particularly includes staff wellness; physical activity being used as a reward and not a punishment for students; and several items that address the new topic of food marketing in school buildings. The federal law states that all foods marketed in school buildings must meet the Smart Snacks nutrition standards for competitive foods. In addition to a global item to capture this federal requirement, this subscale includes items that assess policies concerning marketing across a variety of different settings.