Developing an evaluation plan for school health programs in Nebraska

This article describes a unique plan for comprehensive evaluation of school health programs. With property tax caps threatening Nebraska's school health programs, the Nebraska Dept. of Health and Human Services initiated an evaluation plan to answer the question, "What is the value of school health?" The plan used the "Targeting Outcomes of Program" (TOP) framework to measure impact indicators of a comprehensive school health program. To customize the plan for Nebraska schools, community input was sought from stakeholders identified from a small rural school district. Following a series of focus group meetings, the final evaluation plan was developed and implemented as a statewide evaluation of comprehensive school health services. The resulting plan addressed several deficiencies previously identified in the literature by including community input, attention to multiple roles, and measurable outcomes documenting effectiveness, or value.