Background: Schools and parents may play important roles in preventing childhood obesity by affecting children's behaviors related to energy balance. This study examined how school nutrition policy and parental control over children's eating and physical activity habits are associated with the children's overweight/obesity (hereafter overweight)…

Background: The school setting is frequently used both to educate youth about risks involved in tobacco use and to implement tobacco prevention and cessation programs. Given that school-based programs have resulted in limited success, it is necessary to identify other setting-level intervention strategies. School tobacco policies represent a type…

Describes the rationale for the School Health Policies and Programs Study developed and implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the health status of youth. The study measured policies and programs at state, district, school, and classroom levels across multiple components of school health programs. (SM)

Reviews the problem of violence in public schools, summarizes existing knowledge of prevention, and reviews violence prevention programs that use educational, regulatory, technological, or combined approaches. Recommendations address both policy and program needs. (Author/SM)

This article describes the methodological challenges and processes involved in designing and conducting the School Health Policies and Programs Study. Information is provided on questionnaire development, sampling, data collection, and weighting and variance estimation. (SM)

The School Health Policies and Programs Study assessed health education, physical education, health services, food service, and policies prohibiting violence, tobacco use, and alcohol and other drug use at state, district, school, and classroom levels. State questionnaires found several common themes across the components of school health…

The School Health Policies and Programs Study includes assessment of school food service at the state, district, and school levels. Questionnaire data indicate that the infrastructure to support school food service programs is well established at all levels, with few questioning the role of food service in child health. (SM)

This article presents statistics on school health education, looking at selected federal support and related research and focusing on the School Health Policies and Programs Study, which used questionnaires to provide data on the status of health education at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. (SM)

The School Health Policies and Programs Study assessed state, district, and school health policies prohibiting tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use (AOD), and violence. Most states required AOD use policies, but few required violence or tobacco use policies. Most districts and schools had written policies prohibiting all such behavior. (SM)

The School Health Policies and Programs Study assessed school health services and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection policies at state, district, and school levels. Questionnaires indicated that many states required schools to offer health services and maintain immunization and health records. A majority of states required policies for…