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The nation's schools have made considerable improvements in their policies and programs to promote the health and safety of students, according to a study published in a recent issue of the Journal of School Health.

The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2006, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the largest and most comprehensive study of health policies and programs in the nation's schools. Previous SHPPS were conducted in 1994 and 2000.

"Since the release of the previous SHPPS in 2000, America's schools have made significant progress in removing junk food, offering more physical activity opportunities, and establishing policies that prohibit tobacco use," said CDC director Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH.

Some of the study's major findings include the following:

• States prohibiting schools from offering junk foods in vending machines increased from 8 percent in 2000 to 32 percent in 2006, and the percentage of school districts doing so increased from 4 to 30 percent.
• Schools selling water in vending machines or school stores increased from 30 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2006.
• Schools with policies that prohibited all tobacco use in all school locations, including off-campus school-sponsored events, increased from 46 percent in 2000 to 64 percent in 2006.
• Schools that offered salads a la carte increased from 53 percent in 2000 to 73 percent in 2006.
• The 2006 SHPPS also identified areas that need improvement, including the following:
• Seventy-seven percent of high schools still sell soda or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice, and 61 percent sell salty snacks that are not low in fat.
• Only 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools and 2 percent of high schools provided daily physical education or its equivalent for the entire school year for students in all grades.
• Thirty-six percent of schools still do not have policies prohibiting tobacco use in all locations at all times.

"If we want to build on the improvements that schools have made over the past six years, we need to involve many people and programs," said Howell Wechsler, EdD, MPH, director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health. "Families, schools, school boards, and school administrators all need to work together to develop and implement policies and programs that promote health and safety among our nation's young people."

SHPPS is a national survey conducted every six years to assess school health policies and programs at the state, district, school and classroom levels.

For more information about SHPPS 2006, including fact sheets that summarize study highlights and a summary of state education agency policies, visit www.cdc.gov/SHPPS .