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Local School Wellness Policy as a Means to Advance Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child: Assessing Alignment in Los Angeles County
Author(s) -
DeFosset Amelia R.,
Sivashanmugam Megala,
Gase Lauren N.,
Lai Elaine,
Tan Grace,
Kuo Tony
Publication year - 2020
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.12855
Subject(s) - legislature , quality (philosophy) , environmental health , psychology , political science , medicine , philosophy , epistemology , law
BACKGROUND District wellness policies provide an avenue to advance the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The extent to which wellness policies currently align with WSCC is unclear; to‐date, tools have been unavailable to examine this issue. METHODS We reviewed written health‐focused policies among 37 school districts in Los Angeles County in 2017 utilizing a 54‐item tool designed to examine the quality of policies in the 10 WSCC domains. Descriptive analyses explored overall and domain‐specific comprehensiveness and strength; simple negative binomial regression models examined differences in the policy quality and structure by legislated status. RESULTS Approximately half of expected policies were present in wellness policies (mean comprehensiveness score = 52.65, ±18.09), < 20% were strong (mean strength score = 16.97, ±8.05). Content in WSCC domains addressed by legislative mandates was significantly more comprehensive and stronger, and more frequently located within the wellness policies, relative to content in non‐legislated domains. CONCLUSIONS Opportunities exist for better alignment of wellness policies with WSCC. Education and health practitioners can utilize the tool developed for this study to identify priority areas where policy support is needed in their jurisdictions. Additional efforts are needed to help schools facilitate and document practice gains around WSCC‐aligned policies.