Panel Discussion

Children and youth are one-fourth of our population and all of its future. Children and youth are one fourth our population and all of its future. Recognizing the value of addressing young people in meeting overall public health goals, CDC continues to support and develop a range of initiatives designed to improve the health and well being of this population. This session will have three panelists who represent three different Centers describing the following work: the agency-wide Whole Child initiative, the Results Framework for Coordinated School Health Programs and highlights from the Division of Adolescent and School Health. The CDC response to the Whole Child initiative developed by the education leadership association, ASCD, is led by the cross-agency CDC Child Goal Team. This presentation describes the strategies initiated by the team to more effectively integrate child health work at CDC and to coordinate the interdependent work of child health, education and social services. The second presentation summarizes CDC’s active involvement with the National Coordinating Committee on School Health to develop a framework describing the conditions and results that all students could expect from a coordinated school health program. The indicators which have been identified at the student, school, community, state and national level reflect the measures quantifying the achievement of a quality school health program. Finally DASH, the Division that promotes the health and well-being of children and adolescents to enable them to become healthy and productive adults, will describe current initiatives in HIV prevention and obesity prevention as well as a tool to help schools implement strategies to increase school connectedness.

Session Objectives: Identify three initiatives sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that address the health of children within the school setting. Describe one initiative in detail designed to improve the health well-being of students. Relate how the concepts from any one of these initiatives could be applied to the participants work setting.