1. School Health & Wellness
In Arkansas
Overview of Act 1220; Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act; and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010
Anna Haver, MCHES
Act 1220 Coordinator
July, 2017

2. The Problem
“Obesity is not primarily a medical problem, rather more a public health problem. It cannot be controlled by primarily a medical approach as it is significantly associated with poverty, lower education, food insecurity, and associated intake of high volumes of energy dense, low cost foods.” – Patrick Casey MD
Pediatric obesity is a public health epidemic with serious associated childhood and adult morbidity and high costs.
The medical approach may help some motivated individuals / families. Environmental change is also needed. Children are increasingly less active – at home and at school. There are communities in our state that do not have access to a full service grocery store but surrounded by an abundance of fast food restaurants and convenience stores. Many new schools are being built on the outskirts of town where more property is available so they have room to expand. This results in less students walking or biking to school. Families don’t cook at home as often…for various reasons – they don’t know how to prepare healthy meals, kids are involved in an abundance of activities, parents have more than one job to make ends meat…
The ultimate “cure” of this epidemic will require involvement, creativity, and collaboration of all health and education professionals, civic and business leaders, and policy makers.
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3. Problems of Childhood Obesity
Diabetes
High blood pressure
Heart disease
Gallstones
Asthma
Sleep disorders
In Arkansas, 39% of our students measured overweight or obese in school year
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4. Purpose of Act 1220
An act to create a child health advisory committee; To coordinate statewide efforts to combat childhood obesity and related illnesses; To improve the health of the next generation of Arkansans.
Act 1220 was passed by the 84th General Assembly (2003). The bill was sponsored by Representatives Bradford, Biggs, Cleveland, Milligan, and Senators Bisbee and Argue. Arkansas was the first state in the country to address the epidemic of childhood obesity in this manner. The bill was a result of
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5. Components of Act 1220
Remove elementary school students access to vending machines offering food and beverages and regulate access for secondary students.
Develop recommendations to ensure that nutrition and physical activity standards are implemented to provide students with the skills, opportunities and encouragement to adopt healthy lifestyles.
There were 6 main components of Act The Child Health Advisory Committee, created by the act was tasked with developing the nutrition and physical activity recommendations to be provided to ADE. The committee is made up of representatives from ADH, ADE, Cooperative Extension, AR Academy of Family Practice Physicians, AR Dietetic Association, Advocates for Children and Families, School Food Service Association, School Nurses Association, AR Association of Educational Administrators and others. You can find out more about CHAC on the ADH website.
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6. Components Continued
Require schools to include as part of the annual report to parents and the community the amounts and sources of funds received from competitive food and beverage contracts.
Require schools to include as part of each student’s health report to parents an annual body mass index (BMI) percentile.
One of the goals of Act 1220 was to greatly reduce or eliminate sugar sweetened beverages on school campuses. Many school districts in the state had large contracts with companies such as Pepsi and Coca Cola. No one knew exactly how much money these companies were giving schools until this was required to be reported. Schools were encouraged to look for alternative funding sources to those contracts.
The BMI assessment requirement was originally to be completed for all students in all grades. Act 201 of 2007, this was changed. The assessments are now completed for grades K,2,4,6,8, and 10. The 2007 legislation also provided the ability for parents to opt out of BMI assessment for their student by providing written notice to the school.
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7. Components Continued
Require schools to assemble a Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee
Require goals and objectives for nutrition and physical activity be incorporated into the annual school planning and reporting process
- (ACSIP Wellness Priority)
Completion of the School Health Index is included in the ADE Rules and Regs in order to assist schools with developing the goals and objectives for the Wellness Priority of ACSIP (AR Consolidated School Improvement Plan).
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8. Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004
Each local educational agency participating in a program authorized by the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C et seq) or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C et seq) shall establish a local school wellness policy by School Year 2006.
Signed into law by President Bush on June 30, The Act brings about many improvements in the child nutrition programs by expanding the availability of nutritious meals and snacks to more children in school, in outside school hours programs, and in childcare; and improving the quality of food in schools. AR was already ahead of the game on the requirement to develop a wellness policy, thanks to Act 1220 and the nutrition standards that ADE already had in place for school meals.
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9. Wellness Policy Requirements
Include goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that are designed to promote student wellness.
Include nutrition guidelines for all foods available on the school campus during the school day with the intent of promoting student health and reducing childhood obesity.
Goal One – could include grade appropriate nutrition education in the health education program, encouragement of participation in extra curricular or intramural sports programs, foods/beverages not being used as rewards
Goal Two – elimination of elementary student access to vending machines, food only being sold in the cafeteria, eliminating extra servings of items such as cookies, ice cream, or french fries.
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10. Wellness Policy Requirements
Provide assurance that guidelines for reimbursable school meals not be less restrictive than regulations issued by Secretary of Agriculture
Establish a plan for measuring implementation of wellness policy
Involve parents, students, representatives of school food authority, school board, school administrators, and the public
Goal Three - AR nutrition standards for reimbursable meals and a la’carte foods served in the cafeteria were more restrictive than the USDA nutrition standards. But it could include requirements on portion sizes, amount of fat allowed, etc..
Goal Four – Could be the use of the School Health Index to assess each school campus and compare those to the standards and district policy. This is accomplished through the ACSIP Wellness Priority in AR
Goal Five – These were the same people that AR required to be part of the nutrition and physical activity advisory committees established through Act 1220.
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11. Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act
Strengthens school wellness policies by emphasizing ongoing implementation and assessment
Requires schools to designate a school official to monitor compliance with wellness policy
Include goals for nutrition and physical
education
Final rules issued in July Wellness policy requirements effective June 30, This basically expanded on the requirements of the Child Nutrition and WIC reauthorization act of Wellness policy checklist is available from Child Nutrition to assist schools in reviewing and updating policies to be compliant with state and federal standards. The goals for nutrition and physical activity are what our schools are identifying in their Health & Wellness Priority in Indistar.
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12. HHFKA Continued
Requires annual notification to the public of wellness policy content
Requires schools to measure and make available to the public an assessment of the wellness policy every three years
Establish guidelines for food and beverage marketing
Review of wellness policy and public notification is required annually and a triennial review of implementation is required. Food and beverage marketing should be addressed in the district wellness policy and should be completed by June 30, 2017.
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13. Wellness Committee Responsibilities
Assist with implementation of nutrition and physical activity standards developed by the committee with approval from Department of Education and State Board of Health
Integrate nutrition and physical activity in the overall curriculum
Ensure that professional development for staff includes nutrition and physical activity issues
The Nutrition and Physical Activity Rules and Regulations provided to schools by ADE specifically list the responsibilities of school wellness committees. I’ve listed these in the next few slides and we’ll quickly cover them, but in a nutshell, the wellness committees have been tasked with carrying-out and/or ensuring districts comply with all the requirements of all these pieces of legislation
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14. Wellness Committee Responsibilities
Ensure that students receive nutrition education and engage in healthy levels of vigorous physical activity
Improve the quality of physical education curricula and increase training of physical education teachers
Enforce existing physical education requirements
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15. Wellness Committee Responsibilities
Pursue vending contracts that both encourage healthy eating by students and reduce school dependence on profits from the sale of foods with minimum nutritional value
Annually assess schools using the School Health Index and compile results to be included in ACSIP
Maintain and update annually a written list of recommended locally available healthier options for food and beverage vending contracts
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16. Wellness Committee Responsibilities
Encourage use of non-food alternatives as fund-raisers
Report as part of the annual report to parents and the community the amount of funds received and expenditures made from competitive food and beverage contracts
Provide recommendations to the school district concerning menus and other foods sold in the school cafeteria
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17. Who Must Be Involved? School Board School Administrator
Food Service Authority
Teacher Organization(s)
Community Members – business, service organization
Professional groups such as nurses and counselors
Parents
Students
As specified by Act 1220
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18. Others To Include Hospitals/clinics Business/Industry
Churches/synagogues
Civic and service organizations
Colleges/universities
Social service agencies
Youth groups
Other interested individuals
CHNS/CHPS
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19. Questions Anna Haver Act 1220 Coordinator Phone: (501) 682-3733
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