Students need more than just "any" lunch or breakfast to do well in school--the "quality" of these meals counts also. Studies have demonstrated the role healthy diets can play in students' academic achievement. That's why President Obama signed into law the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in December 2010. This historic legislation provides free…

Proposed new federal rules governing the meals served to school children across the country each weekday are causing a stir among food industry groups, cafeteria managers, parents, and students. The skirmish is over the U.S. Department of Agriculture's efforts, prompted by the recent passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, to rewrite the…

In the past 30 years, the prevalence of obesity in children has increased to epidemic proportions. The obesity rate among children ages 2 to 5 has more than doubled (from 5 percent to 10.4 percent); more than quadrupled (from 4.2 to 17 percent) among children ages 6 to 11; and more than tripled among adolescents ages 12 to 19 (from 4.6 to 17.6…

Healthy students perform better. Poor nutrition and inadequate physical activity can affect not only academic achievement, but also other factors such as absenteeism, classroom behavior, ability to concentrate, self-esteem, cognitive performance, and test scores. This toolkit provides information to help make schools the model for healthier…

Purpose/Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the extent to which school nutrition (SN) programs have implemented food safety programs based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles, as well as factors, barriers, and practices related to implementation of these programs. Methods: An online survey was…

The federal school nutrition programs are the keystones to the diets of millions of American children. Schools have the opportunity to support healthy nutrition habits early in life by creating environments that encourage the consumption of healthy foods and beverages. This paper provides resources which offer general information about the…

"Kids' Share 2015: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children in 2014 and Future Projections," an ninth annual report, looks comprehensively at federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Federal spending on children has remained fairly flat, in real dollars, over the past three years. Broader budgetary forces will continue to…

In 2002 the Council of the Great City Schools and its members set out to develop performance measures that could be used to improve business operations in urban public school districts. The Council launched the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to achieve these objectives. The purposes of the project were to: (1) Establish a common…

Homelessness is a lack of fixed, regular, and adequate housing often resulting from extreme poverty; economic hardship due to job loss, illness, or a similar reason; or devastation following a natural disaster. According to the Urban Institute, the mean income of families experiencing homelessness is less than half the federal poverty line. This…

Guam Department of Education (GDOE) is a single unified school district consisting of grades Kindergarten through 12. Its 26 Elementary Schools, 8 Middle Schools, 5 High Schools, and an alternative school serve over 31,000 students, and is managed by the 11-member Guam Education Board (GEB). Despite the operational and financial challenges the…

This paper explores the standard traditional summer vacation model; this includes the accompanying food insecurity, loss of nutrition and the lost knowledge that must be re-taught at the beginning of each new academic year. It compares the number of academic days attended in various Industrialized Nations compared to the United States. Also,…

In 2009, 14.7% of households were food insecure at some time during the year. In other words, members of those households did not have access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. This is arguably the most serious nutrition-related public health problem facing the U.S. today. The serious developmental consequences of food…

The school environment is an ideal setting for healthy weight programming with adolescents. The federal government has reinforced the importance of school-based health promotion. The current study examined the preliminary influence of the 2006 school wellness policy requirement of the "Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act"…

As the education reform movement increasingly focuses on teachers and teaching, educators, policy-makers, and researchers need valid and reliable measures that can be used to evaluate individual teachers, provide guidance for improving teaching performance, and support research in ways that advance instruction and classroom dialog and practice. A…

For more than 20 years, Advocates for Children of New Jersey has published the Newark Kids Count Data Book, a one-stop source for child well-being data on the state's largest city. Newark Kids Count includes the latest statistics, along with five-year trend data, in the following areas: demographics, family economic security, food insecurity,…