Schools get improved ranking in annual health scorecard

A scorecard released today by the Colorado Health Institute found that Colorado schools have made progress over the last year in health policy and programming. Overall, schools were rated “mid-high” in the “Reaching Our Peak 2014: Scorecard for a Healthier Colorado” report, compared to “mid” last year.

Several state and federal legislative changes were highlighted for positively affecting the school health environment over the last year. These include $700,000 in new state funding for the Safe Routes to School programming, after federal funding for the program ended this month. Also cited was a new state law allowing third- to fifth-graders who qualify for reduced-priced school meals to henceforth get the meals for free. (Students in kindergarten through second grade already get this benefit.)

The scorecard also mentioned significant statewide increases in school breakfast participation over the last five years, with additional jumps expected this year and the following year as the state “Breakfast After the Bell” law phases in.

On the early childhood front, the report cites $45 million in federal Race to the Top funding earmarked for various initiatives aimed at improving school readiness. The report also praises the addition of 5,000 new preschool and full-day kindergarten slots in 2013-14 through the Colorado Preschool Program, but cautions that the gains are not keeping up with the need.

Also mentioned in the report is an effort by the Colorado Education Initiative, with financial support from Kaiser Permanente Colorado, to create a new streamlined school health data system called The Colorado Healthy Schools Smart Source. That system will be scaling up over the next year. In addition to legislative and policy trends, the schools section of the report highlights a program on the Eastern Plains that arms students with disposable cameras to document healthy and unhealthy aspects of their lives.

Besides rating schools, the annual Reaching Our Peak scorecard measured progress in four other categories, including aging, communities, health care and workplace. The only one besides schools that made improvements this year was communities, which moved from “low-mid” to “mid.” Aging stayed the same at “low” and workplace stayed the same at “mid.” Health care moved from “mid-high” to “mid.”