For additional resources on these topics and others related to school health education and services,
visit the School Health Program Web site at
www.dshs.state.tx.us/schoolhealth
Quote to Note:
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” Unknown Author
Program Notices and Postings:
Immunization Requirements for Displaced Students
Attached by link is a letter concerning the immunization requirements for students displaced by Hurricane Ike. Additional information may follow if necessary. If you have any questions, please contact Monica Gamez, Immunization Compliance Coordinator, Department of State Health Services (DSHS), Immunization Branch, 512-458-7111, ext. 6470; or, toll free:800-252-9152 or . To read the letter, go to www.dshs.state.tx.us/immunize/docs/school/ImmReqHurricaneIke.pdf.
Physical Education:
FITNESSGRAM® Test Administration Training – October 14, 2008
The Texas Education Agency will sponsor this TETN session which is specifically designed for those individuals administering the FITNESSGRAM® test with students. Sign up to participate with your Education Service Center (ESC). To find out which ESC Regional office serves your area, go to www.tea.state.tx.us/ESC.
Tag, You're Healthy! Robert Wood Johnson Foundation makes $18-million investment in recess
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s leading public health foundation, announced a major investment to bring safe and healthy playtime and recess to a million low-income children a day. To reach that goal, the Foundation is teaming up with Sports4Kids, a national nonprofit that has pioneered an effective model for using play and classic games—like kickball, four square and tag—to transform the learning environment at elementary schools serving America’s minority and low-income children. Read more at www.rwjf.org/vulnerablepopulations/product.jsp?id=33571&c=EMC-ADV#content.
Are Student/Learning Supports Being Disproportionately Cut in the Current Budget Crunch?
Even before the current budget crisis, student/learning supports often were among the first to go when budgets were tight. Currently, school boards and district administrators are making hard decisions about what to cut and who to lay off. The re-emerging issue is: Is there a tendency to cut-back on student/learning supports disproportionately? If so, is this tendency exacerbated by the belief that community agencies can be used in place of the programs and services that are cut? The issue isn't about the cuts, per se. When budgets are tight, tough decisions have to be made. The issues are 1.) whether the cuts are disproportionate and, if so, 2.) whether the rationale underlying the decisions is sound. Some thoughts related to this matter have been offered in connection with the Center for Mental Health in Schools’ latest Hot Topic online at http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/hottopic.htm.
Health Education:
Announcing 2008-2009 Texas Tobacco-Free Teen Leadership Summits – Various Dates
The Center for Safe Communities and Schools (CSCS) is hosting six Texas Tobacco-Free Teen Leadership Summits across the state during the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009. The summits are made possible through a contract from the DSHS as part of the Texas tobacco companies’ settlement. The summits will provide training to young people to create change focused on improving health and well-being, while gaining experience and skills to become leaders in their communities. School and/or community-based youth groups (ages 14-17) are invited to attend along with at least one adult sponsor. The first Summit is November 7-8, 2008 with an October 23rd registration deadline. Download a full schedule and registration form at www.cscs.txstate.edu/cyi/cyi-teen-summits.htm.
Become an HIV/STI Prevention Peer Technical Advisor
The National Association of County and City Health Officials is developing a network of local health department (LHD) peer technical advisors to provide technical assistance to other LHDs, in order to improve their capacity to develop or enhance adolescent HIV, STI and/or unintended pregnancy prevention programs. This opportunity will allow peer technical advisors to share their expertise, experience, and knowledge with other LHDs interested in establishing or improving similar programs. For more information and to download and application, go to www.naccho.org/topics/HPDP/infectious/hiv/index.cfm.
School Wellness Policies: Do you have one - and is it working? – October 21, 2008
District Administration Web Seminars presents a panel of experts with answers to questions like:
§ Why should you assess your school wellness policy?
§ How can a district measure the success of its wellness policy?
§ What tools are available to help school wellness?
§ What role should physical activity play in a school wellness policy?
To access the Web seminar, go to www.districtadministration.com/viewpage.aspx?pagename=staticpage/webinar/dannon20081021.htm.
Engaging and Re-engaging Students in Learning at School
As the school year progresses, an increasing concern is not only on how to enhance engagement in learning, but how to re-engage those students who have become actively disengaged in classroom instruction. Engagement is associated with positive academic outcomes; and it is higher in classrooms with supportive teachers and peers, challenging and authentic tasks, opportunities for choice, and sufficient structure. Conversely, for many students, disengagement is associated with behavior problems, and behavior and learning problems may eventually lead to dropout. The following are fundamental to the challenge of student (and staff) disengagement and re-engagement and are highlighted in the guide:
§ Disengaged students and social control
§ Intrinsic motivation
§ Two key components of motivation: valuing and expectations
§ Overreliance on extrinsics: a bad match
§ Focusing on intrinsic motivation to re-engage students
To access and download the guide, go to www.smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/engagingandre-engagingstudents.pdf.
Addressing Barriers to Learning: A Set of Surveys to Map What a School Has and What It Needs.
This resource provides surveys for six program areas and related system needs that constitute a comprehensive, multifaceted, and integrated approach to address barriers and thus enable learning. The areas are; 1.) classroom-focused enabling, 2.) crisis assistance and prevention, 3.) support for transitions, 4.) home involvement in schooling, 5.) student and family assistance programs and services and 6.) community outreach for involvement and support (including volunteers). To access, go to http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/Surveys/Set1.pdf.
Nutrition Services:
Hard Times Hitting Students’ and Schools’ Free School Breakfast and Lunch Programs
With mortgage foreclosures throwing hundreds of families out of their homes each month, dismayed school officials say they are feeling the upheaval: record numbers of students turning up for classes this fall are homeless or poor enough to quality for free meals. The problems in many districts can be traced to battered state budgets. Nationally, about 15 million (of 50 million) students qualify for free lunches. Read more at www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/education/01school.html?_r=5&scp=1&sq=HARD%2520TIMES%2520HITTING%2520STUDENTS%2520AND%2520SCHOOLS&st&oref=login.
Health Services:
Resource Directory: Diabetes in Children and Adolescents
This directory lists government agencies, professional organizations and voluntary associations that provide information and resources related to diabetes and its risk factors and/or child and adolescent health. To access, click on www.ndep.nih.gov/diabetes/youth/youth_ResDirectory.htm.
Counseling and Mental Health Services:
Newest Practice Guide from What Works Clearinghouse (WWC)
Designed for elementary school educators and school- and district-level administrators, Reducing Behavior Problems in the Elementary School Classroom offers prevention, implementation, and school wide strategies that can be used to reduce problematic behavior that interferes with the ability of students to attend to and engage fully in instructional activities. The guide provides five concrete recommendations for promoting positive student behavior in elementary schools. To access the guide, go to http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/#be_pg.
Dropout Prevention Guide from WWC
Geared toward educators, administrators and policymakers, this U. S. Department of Education guide provides recommendations that focus on reducing high school dropout rates. Strategies presented include identifying and advocating for at-risk students, implementing programs to improve behavior and social skills, and keeping students engaged in the school environment. To download the guide, go to http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/dp_pg_090308.pdf.
House of Representatives and Senate Pass Mental Health Parity Bills
Last week, both the House and Senate passed bills with bipartisan support requiring group insurance plans nationally to cover mental health, alcohol and substance abuse services on an equal basis with medical care. The law, known as the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, restricts insurers from charging higher co-payments or imposing higher deductibles for mental health and addiction services. Find out more at www.healthinschools.org/News-Room/News-Alerts/September-2008/Congress-Passes-Mental-Health-Parity-Bills.aspx.
Children's Mental and Physical Health Recent Publications:
§ Violent adolescents and their educational environment: A multilevel analysis (2008) J. Thurnherr, J., et al., Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Epub. www.jrnldbp.com
§ Adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury: Who is doing it and why? (2008) E. Lloyd-Richardson. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 29, 216-218. www.jrnldbp.com
§ Social skills training for secondary students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders: A review and analysis of the meta-analytic literature. (2008) R. Clayton, et al., Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 16(3) 131-144. Http://ebx.sagepub.com
§ Children's stigmatization of childhood depression and ADHD: Magnitude and demographic variation in a national sample (2008) J. Walker, et al., Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(8) 912-920. www.Jaacap.com
§ Examining ethnic, gender, and developmental differences in the way children report being a victim of "bullying" on self-report measures (2008). A. Sawyer, et al., Journal of Adolescent Health, 43(2) 106-114. www.sciencedirect.com
Parent and Community Involvement:
NIDCD Launches Campaign to Help Parents Protect the Hearing of Tweens
A new campaign to help parents of 8- to 12-year-olds teach their children how to avoid hearing loss from overexposure to loud noise was launched today by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health. The new campaign, called It's a Noisy Planet. Protect Their Hearing., features a new Web site that offers advice to parents on the causes and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss, how to recognize when a child's hearing is at risk, and ways to reduce noise exposure. The site contains games, posters, and interactive information about noise and hearing loss tailored specifically for tweens.
The Noisy Planet campaign advocates three ways to prevent NIHL:
§ Block the noise by wearing earplugs or protective earmuffs, like those used by airport or lawn service workers.
§ Avoid the noise by walking away or limiting time spent in noisy environments.
§ Turn down the sound on the growing number of tools, toys and gadgets that add to the increasing noise level of daily life.
Information on NIDCD's Noisy Planet campaign is available at www.noisyplanet.nidcd.nih.gov.
Family, School and Community Recent Publications
§ Coping with youth suicide and overdose: One community’s efforts to investigate, intervene, and prevent suicide contagion. (2008) K. Hacker, et al. Crisis, 29(2) 86-95. www.hhpub.com/journals/crisis
§ Strengthening parents' ability to provide the guidance and support that matter most in high school (2008) T. Taylor & J. Dounay. Educational Commission of the States. www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/78/48/7848.pdf
§ Family partnerships that count (2008) J. Allen. Educational Leadership, 66(1) p. 22-27. www.ascd.org
Children and terrorism-related news: Training parents in coping and media literacy. (2008) J. Comer, et al., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(4) 568-578. www.apa.org/journals/ccp.html
Safe and Healthy School Environment:
Children’s Environmental Health Institute 5th Biennial Scientific Symposium – October 30-31, 2008
The goal of the symposium is to raise awareness about the critical links between exposure to toxins and the health of children. The symposium will provide the latest evidence-based information needed to understand, recognize and prevent children's exposure to environmental toxicants and other health hazards where they live, learn and play. To register and learn more, go to www.cehi.org.
Random Drug Testing Summits – October 21, 2008 and October 29, 2008
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy will be hosting two regional Random Student Drug Testing Summits this month. The summits will address relevant legal and program development issues and serve as an introduction for schools that would like to learn more about student drug testing. For schools that already have a program in place, new information will be available. Summit attendees will also learn about the newly created Student Drug Testing (SDT) Institute. Launched in September, the SDT Institute is designed to assist schools and school districts in implementing drug testing programs and to provide technical assistance for existing programs. There is no cost to attend the summits, to be held October 21, 2008 in Omaha, Nebraska and October 29th in Albany, New York. Register online at http://summits.csrincorporated.com. Send an email to or call 703-312-5220 with questions.
National Health Observances Calendar – October:
Let's Talk Month – Advocates for Youth www.advocatesforyouth.org/NEWS/events/letstalk.htm
Healthy Lung Month – American Lung Association www.lungusa.org
National Dental Hygiene Month – American Dental Hygienists' Association www.adha.org
5 – 11 Fire Prevention Week – National Fire Protection Association www.firepreventionweek.org
5 – 11 Mental Illness Awareness Week – National Alliance on Mental Illness www.nami.org
6 – 10 Get Smart About Antibiotics Week – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/community/week.htm
6 National Child Health Day – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau www.mchb.hrsa.gov
8 Stop America's Violence Everywhere Today – American Medical Association Alliance www.amaalliance.org
10 World Mental Health Day – World Federation for Mental Health www.wfmh.org/00WorldMentalHealthDay.htm
13 – 17 National School Lunch Week – School Nutrition Association www.schoolnutrition.org
18 – 26 Red Ribbon Week – National Family Partnership http://cmnfp.pictco.org/default.asp?PageNum=582
20 – 24 National Health Education Week – National Center for Health Education www.nche.org
22 Lung Health Day – American Association for Respiratory Care www.aarc.org/headlines/lung_health_day
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External links to other sites appearing in the Friday Beat are intended to be informational and do not represent an endorsement by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). These sites may also not be accessible to people with disabilities. External email links are provided to you as a courtesy. Please be advised that you are not emailing the DSHS and DSHS policies do not apply should you choose to correspond. For information about any of the programs listed, contact the sponsoring organization directly. For comments or questions about the Friday Beat, contact Ellen Smith at (512) 458-7111 ext. 2140 or by email at . Copyright free. Permission granted to forward or make copies as needed.
Friday Beat – October 3, 2008 4