Prevalence of school policies, programs, and facilities that promote a healthy physical school environment.
OBJECTIVE
We examined the extent to which schools in the United States have health-promoting policies, programs, and facilities.


METHODS
We analyzed data from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000.


RESULTS
We found that public schools (vs private and Catholic schools), urban schools (vs rural and suburban schools), and schools with larger enrollments (vs smaller schools) had more health-promoting policies, programs, and facilities in place. On average, middle schools had 11.0 and middle/junior and high schools had 10.4 out of a possible 18 policies, programs, and facilities.


CONCLUSIONS
Although some schools had many healthy physical environment features, room for improvement exists. Resources are available to help schools improve their health-promoting policies, programs, and facilities.
Everett Jones
Sherry
S
Division of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, Mail Stop K-33, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA. sce2@cdc.gov
Brener
Nancy D
ND
McManus
Tim
T
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D004779:Environment Design; D005522:Food Services / Q000592:standards; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008283:Maintenance / Q000592:standards; D016134:Organizational Policy; D012424:Rural Population; D012449:Safety; D012574:Schools / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013383:Suburban Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population