- State/Provincial Leadership Matters
- Three articles in the May, 2012 Issue of Journal of School Health report on the effect of state level leadership in regulating school food sales, in farm to school programs and in monitoring BMI. Not surprisingly, those states that had passed laws and shown active leadership had more school districts and schools implementing those poicies and programs.
- Assistance, Coordination, Training Matter
- Two articles in Issue #3, 2012 of Preventing Chronic Disease report on the Healthy Schools program, a support to the US federal law requiring funded schools to implement nutrition and activity programs. The article on the role of the Technical Assistance component of the HSP shows that training, assistance and coordination matter in the implementation and operation of the program.
- Coordinators Matter
- An article in Issue #3, 2012 of the Health Education Journal describes the factors that facilitate and barriers towards the implementation of health education programmes in primary education schools of the prefecture of Achaia, Greece.Findings indicated that the most significant factor that facilitates the implementation of innovative health education programmes is ‘Knowledge and skills of the Health Education Officer and the teachers’. The Health Education Officer plays an important role in programme coordination by supporting, counselling, giving feedback and providing training/educational materials to teachers.