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Impact of Mississippi Healthy Students Act of 2007 on District‐ and School‐Level Health Policies: School Officials' Perspectives
Author(s) -
Buffington Anne,
McKee Colleen,
Ragsdale Kathleen,
Blanchard Troy C.,
Baggett Dorris,
Southward Linda H.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/josh.12152
Subject(s) - stakeholder , state (computer science) , school district , public health , psychology , medical education , political science , medicine , public relations , pedagogy , nursing , algorithm , computer science
BACKGROUND Annual evaluations of the Mississippi Healthy Students Act of 2007 ( MHSA ) were conducted during 2009‐2011 (years 1‐3) among 4 stakeholder groups: (1) parents of public school students, (2) adolescents, (3) state‐level policymakers (ie, legislators and other state officials), and (4) public school officials (ie, superintendents and school board members). METHODS We examine results from the first state‐wide surveys conducted among purposive samples of superintendents (N = 314) and school board members (N = 689) on childhood obesity as it related to MHSA . These school officials were surveyed in years 1‐3 to determine their knowledge or attitudes toward MHSA and support of potential policies, such as reporting results of student body mass index ( BMI ) assessments to parents. RESULTS Through the 3 years of the study, school officials were supportive of MHSA across a number of variables, although superintendents were consistently more supportive of current policies as compared with school board members. CONCLUSIONS Results underscore the current and potential role of school officials relative to the process of fully implementing MHSA within all public school districts in Mississippi. Implications and 3 cases that illustrate diverse ways that school districts have chosen to implement effective school‐based health initiatives are discussed.