Promoting the health of New York City public school students and families through a public-private partnership

In 1977, The New York Academy of Medicine's Committee on Medicine and Society created an Advisory Committee on Health Education to advance the Academy's mission to improve the health of the public in New York City. The Advisory Committee convened physicians and representatives of major voluntary and public health agencies and developed the vision of providing New York City public school children with dynamic, hands-on classroom learning activities that would teach them about valuing and protecting their health for the rest of their lives. As is often the case, health instruction was not a school priority due to the focus on reading and math and other basic skills acquisition. The Academy's Office of School Health Programs (OSHP) was created in the belief that NYC students, K-12, needed to have the knowledge and skills necessary to make decisions to protect and enhance their health.

To accomplish this, the OSHP has built and maintains a coalition of more than 45 private foundations, corporations, voluntary agencies and individuals -- the largest public-private sector supported comprehensive health education program in the US. Today the training and education offered has helped more than 20,000 teachers and hundreds of administrators, school staff and parents in more than 1100 public schools in NYC acquire the knowledge and techniques to teach young people to be healthy and academically successful. After 25 years of continuous expansion, the initiatives go beyond the classroom, using technology and involving students, teachers, school staff, parents, families, community based organizations, and academic medical centers.