Schools as agents for achieving the 1990 Health Objectives for the Nation

This article clarifies the capacity of the nation's public schools to act as powerful and effective agents to facilitate attainment of the 1990 Health Objectives for the Nation. Of the health promotion and disease prevention objectives established by the Department of Health and Human Services in 1980, Iverson and Kolbe have identified 67 that can be achieved directly or indirectly through comprehensive school health programming. This process, however, can best be expedited by expanding the traditional definition of comprehensive school health from one that includes health instruction, health services, and a healthful school environment coordinated by a school/community health council to one that integrates additional programs and resources already in existence in most school and community environments: the physical education program, the school food service program, the school counseling program, and a school site health promotion initiative for faculty and staff. All eight of these areas can be utilized as highly valuable resources to facilitate the attainment of the health objectives for the nation. This schematic, first advanced by Kolbe, includes those diverse programs which have as their objectives the promotion of some aspect of health, either for students or staff, within the school setting. Specific suggestions for programming to attain those 1990 health objectives via an integrated school-based approach are discussed.