Evaluation of a Five Year Coordinated School Health Initiative: The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Coordinated School Health Grantees Initiative

This presentation reports on the academic, health, and policy-related effects of the Coordinated School Health (CSH) initiative involving over 17,000 students in 29 primarily rural and small urban Kentucky school districts. Funded by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, the initiative's grants provided districts with two or more years of funding and technical assistance to incorporate components of the CSH model. The initiative's goals focused on identifying and encouraging policies and programs resulting in healthier, more productive students and school staff with a special focus on reducing student obesity and increasing student physical activity. Led by the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, the quantitative evaluation compared student health behaviors, school health policies, standardized academic test scores, daily attendance, and infrastructure investments over five years using surveys (modified Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the California Healthy Kids Survey), staff interviews, and direct fitness measurements. This presentation reports on the outcomes of this evaluation and their implications for similar initiatives in other educational settings.