A statewide school tobacco policy review: process, results, and implications

The federal Pro-Children's Act of 1994 and other public health laws prompted most schools to create policies that address tobacco issues. To date, however, the literature is devoid of research that assesses the quality of a district's tobacco policy. This article describes the process and results from a large-scale, tobacco policy review. An Interagency Tobacco Task Group requested that tobacco policies of all New York State Schools be reviewed. A policy rubric was developed using the documents Fit, Healthy, and Ready to Learn and the School Health Index. The rubric assessed five policy components. Aggregate data were calculated for each policy component and for the final score. School policies also were evaluated for compliance with state and federal laws. Overall policy review scores were quite low, suggesting greater effort be placed on helping schools to develop more effective tobacco policies. Initial efforts included sending letters and a "tobacco tool kit" to schools containing recommendations and resources to improve their district's tobacco policy.