Background: We examined prevalence, incidence, and trajectory of obesity from kindergarten through grade 8 in one of the first states to implement annual surveillance. Methods: Participants included 16,414 children enrolled in kindergarten in Arkansas in 2004 with complete body mass index (BMI) measurements in kindergarten and eighth grade.…

School districts in the United States are responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in significantly different ways. The authors of this report fielded the third American School District Panel (ASDP) survey in June 2021 to discover what changes districts are making to their academic and nonacademic offerings for the upcoming…

Across the globe, educational and health practitioners wrestle daily with the paradoxes of risk and resilience. Though the causes of risk are generally outside the control of professionals, manifestations of disadvantage directly affect service delivery and the realizing of accountability benchmarks. This article proposes a shift in attention from…

Critical approaches to Spanish heritage language (SHL) pedagogy have called for more meaningful engagement with heritage language communities (Leeman, 2005). In a recent survey, furthermore, SHL students expressed a desire for more community-based activities in SHL curricula (Beaudrie, Ducar, & Relano-Pastor, 2009). This paper reports on the…

This review of literature examines leading contributors and mediators of health disparities in the United States. Specifically, poverty, education, and health are addressed. Special emphasis is placed on implications of health risk behaviors and health education for select populations and settings. Existing and suggested strategies for addressing…

The Promising Practices Network (PPN) on Children, Families and Communities (www.promisingpractices.net) began as a partnership between four state-level organizations that help public and private organizations improve the well-being of children and families. The PPN website, archived in June 2014, featured summaries of programs and practices that…

The Buffalo School Health Demonstration Plan is an innovative model program designed to expand and improve the delivery of health services and health education to school-age children attending Buffalo (New York) schools, with emphasis on lower socioeconomic youth. It seeks to develop a primarily preventive program that attempts to modify attitudes…

Objective: To explore the diverse roles of drop-in services in the HLC sector; to develop further the classification of drop-in services offered by earlier studies; and to provide an example of some the challenges faced by HLCs in their attempts to tackle poor health using area-based methods with vulnerable, hard-to-reach users. Setting: Scottish…

Aims: The aims of this study were: (i) to describe the nature of and the extent to which community-based organizations (CBOs) in Cape Town provide services to people who have alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems; (ii) to examine the relationship between CBOs' attitudes towards individuals with AOD problems and the types of services provided; and…

Adolescent pregnancy results from a combination of factors, including feelings of hopelessness, poor education, and the effects of racism. Its personal, social, and public costs must be understood and addressed. Reiterates findings that pregnancy prevention programs should be sensitive to the target group culture, include other family members, and…

THE RURAL POPULATION HAS BEEN SHIFTING TOWARD THE URBAN CENTERS OF OUR COUNTRY. SOME EVIDENCE INDICATES A REVERSAL OF THIS SITUATION IN THE NEAR FUTURE. INDUSTRY IS MOVING AWAY FROM THE CITIES TO AVOID WATER POLLUTION, TRAFFIC CONGESTION, AND HIGHER OPERATIONAL COSTS. PLANNED CITIES WHICH INCLUDE COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH PLANS ARE BEING CONSTRUCTED IN…

This monograph represents a collection of reports generated by a state-wide collaborative research project begun in 1982. The reports, based on information collected by a literature review and two surveys of representative samples of migrant workers in New York State, systematically analyze relationships between migrant workers' health conditions,…

Presents 11 recommendations related to improving child health that are based on a synthesis of 58 research reports published 1988-92. Suggests that the development of policies that reduce inadequate health care for women and children, unintended pregnancy, deficient education, and poor nutrition will ultimately improve the life circumstances, and…

Following decades of mutual disengagement, coordinated school health programs (CSHPs) are emerging in response to the current state of children's health and education. CSHPs usually feature staff health promotion; health education; school health services; counseling, psychological, and social services; nutrition; physical education; a healthy…

This book defines key issues in the debate over the role of schools in the health of children, outlining the history of school health programs and discussing the contemporary issue of school health care delivery. Health needs are increasingly being met by the major social institution in U.S. society that deals with the needs of children--the…