Prev Chronic Dis

Establishing healthy habits in youth can help prevent many chronic health problems later in life that are attributable to unhealthy eating, sedentary lifestyle, and overweight. For this reason, many public health professionals are interested in working with school systems to reach children in school settings. However, a lack of familiarity with how schools operate can be a substantial impediment to developing effective partnerships with schools. We describe lessons learned from three successful school health promotion programs that were developed and disseminated through collaborations between public health professionals, academic institutions, and school personnel. The programs include two focused on physical activity and good nutrition for elementary and middle school children--Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) and Planet Health--and one focused on smoking cessation among adolescents--Not-On-Tobacco (N-O-T). Important features of these school health programs include 1) identification of staff and resources required for program implementation and dissemination; 2) involvement of stakeholders (e.g., teachers, students, other school personnel, parents, nonprofit organizations, professional organizations) during all phases of program development and dissemination; 3) planning for dissemination of programs early in the development and testing process; and 4) rigorous evaluation of interventions to determine their effectiveness. The authors provide advice based on lessons learned from these programs to those who wish to work with young people in schools.20071-U48-DP-000052/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United StatesHD-30780/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United StatesU48/CCU 115807/PHS HHS/United StatesU48/CCU 310831/PHS HHS/United StatesU48/CCU 609653/PHS HHS/United States720