Empowering Strong and Healthy Students: A Comprehensive Guide to NYCPS School Wellness

New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) is dedicated to creating positive, supportive, and health-promoting learning environments at every level to ensure that all students graduate knowing how to take care of their minds, their bodies, and their relationships with others. The NYCPS School Wellness Policy, titled "Empowering Strong and Healthy Students," along with its accompanying School Guide, outlines the approach to achieving this goal, acknowledging the interconnectedness of health and wellness, food, and sustainability.

The Importance of Wellness in Education

Research indicates a strong correlation between good nutrition and physical activity and positive student outcomes. The Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) School Breakfast Program, for instance, is associated with higher grades and standardized test scores, lower rates of absenteeism, and better performance on cognitive tasks. Conversely, inadequate consumption of fruits, vegetables, and dairy products is linked to lower grades. Students who are physically active through various means, such as walking or biking to school, recess, physical activity breaks, high-quality physical education, and extracurricular activities, also tend to perform better academically.

NYCPS School Wellness Policy: Goals and Procedures

The NYCPS School Wellness Policy establishes goals and procedures to ensure that:

Students receive physical education that meets State requirements, and opportunities to be physically active before, during, and/or after school.
Students receive comprehensive health, mental health, and nutrition education that helps them develop the knowledge and skills to practice lifelong healthy behaviors.
Students learn how to access the health information and services available to them in and outside of school settings.
Students have access to healthy foods during the school day-through both reimbursable school meals and other foods available throughout the school campus-in accordance with federal and New York State nutrition standards.
Food and beverages sold or served at school meet strict nutrition and marketing standards.
School meals provide students with access to free, nutritious and appealing foods that meet their health and nutritional needs.
NYCPS participates in available federal school meal programs (including the School Breakfast Program, National School Lunch Program [including after-school snacks], Summer Food Service Program, Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, and Child and Adult Care Food Program [including suppers]).
Schools engage in food, nutrition, food education, and physical activity promotion, as well as other activities that promote student wellness and sustainability.
The community is engaged in supporting the work of NYCPS in creating continuity between school and other settings for students and staff to practice lifelong healthy habits.
Central offices coordinate management, oversight, implementation, communication about, and monitoring of the policy and its established goals and objectives.

Application and Strategic Aims

"Empowering Strong and Healthy Students: The NYCPS School Wellness Policy" applies to all students and staff in New York City public schools. This policy highlights the collaboration and coordination envisioned for components of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model, and ASCD’s Whole Child approach to education, to serve student health and wellness. Central staff across divisions collaborate on drafting and updating the policy periodically with the goal of ensuring that families, schools, and the community have a more cohesive, accessible policy.

The policy also seeks to advance strategic aims to:

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Establish physical and health education as required, core academic subjects essential to student achievement, with opportunities for food education across all subjects.
Improve coordination and build understanding across offices, departments, agencies and schools about effective wellness strategies.
Highlight public, school-level reporting data that establishes levels of compliance with various provisions.
Build mutually beneficial connections among food, wellness, and sustainability in schools.

Governance and Advisory Council

To ensure adherence to the wellness policy, NYCPS convenes a Citywide Wellness Advisory Council (“Advisory Council”) periodically to advise on and advocate for building public support for Physical Education, Health Education and other inter-related wellness, food and sustainability policies, programs, and practices. The Advisory Council focuses on promotion, implementation, and review of Empowering Strong and Healthy Students: The NYCPS School Wellness Policy.

Advisory Council membership is intended to represent all school levels (elementary and secondary schools) and primarily includes parents and caregivers as well as students who are representative and inclusive of the New York City school community. Physical education teachers, health education teachers, School Wellness Council champions, sustainability coordinators, and other health, mental health, social services, and food services staff, along with representatives from NYCPS offices of School Wellness Programs, Food and Nutrition Services (e.g., nutrition director), Energy and Sustainability, colleagues at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Superintendents, principals, and other community partners and stakeholders are invited to participate in council activities.

School Wellness Councils

All New York City public schools should establish and/or sustain a School Wellness Council. A School Wellness Council (or similar group, council or team) advises the School Leadership Team and the principal in order to: review and support implementation of Citywide and local school-level wellness policies; assess the wellness of the school environment using the School Wellness Scorecard in the Wellness Council Manager (requires NYCPS login) on the Wellness Hub (requires NYCPS login); and create and implement action plans as part of school-wide wellness initiatives (e.g., physical activity programs, food education experiences, food environment improvements, sustainability initiatives, community wellness engagement activities); and/or, to support instructional goals in Comprehensive Education Plans. School Wellness Councils should communicate wellness-related policies annually so that all staff, parents, and students are aware of and follow policy guidelines. Final responsibility for School Wellness Council governance and policy implementation rests with the principal.

NYCPS Leadership and Support

The Office of School Wellness Programs within the Office of Community Supports and Wellness unit convenes the Advisory Council and facilitates the development of and updates to Empowering Strong and Healthy Students: The NYCPS School Wellness Policy, mainly related to physical and health education, and other wellness-related programming. They coordinate with leadership in the Office of Food and Nutrition Services, the Office of School Health, the Office of Energy and Sustainability, and other offices on updating service-related portions of the policy, with leadership of those respective offices responsible for accountability requirements of their areas. The Office of Academic Policy and Systems oversees collecting and reporting academic data pertaining to physical and health education, and communicating associated academic policies. They share appropriate reports with schools, Superintendents, and citywide Central offices. NYCPS provides public data on physical and health education provision.

The Office of Food and Nutrition Services provides the following services:

Works with the local health department, community advocacy organizations, and the educational community to assess and promote student acceptance of the School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program offerings.
Continues to use USDA-approved software to monitor compliance of cycle menus and snack programs with federal, State, and local nutritional policies and standards.
Randomly collects, analyzes, and evaluates menu items for compliance with Office of Food and Nutrition Services specifications.
Continues to participate in audits and reviews by local, State and federal agencies.

The Office of School Wellness Programs provides schools with guidance, resources, and programs to support physical and health education, physical activity, and overall school wellness initiatives, including the development of School Wellness Councils. NYCPS recommends that schools use the Wellness Council Manager (requires NYCPS login) on the Wellness Hub (requires NYCPS login); to register their School Wellness Council, complete the School Wellness Scorecard, and develop goals and, if applicable, spending proposal(s) to create an action plan that fosters implementation and connects schools to resources and information.

Recordkeeping and Accountability

Central NYCPS offices (e.g., Academic Policy, Food and Nutrition Services, School Wellness Programs) retain records to document compliance with the requirements of Empowering Strong and Healthy Students: The NYCPS School Wellness Policy on the NYCPS’ InfoHub or digital storage network as appropriate.

Documentation includes but is not limited to:

The written wellness policy.
Documentation demonstrating compliance with community involvement requirements, including (1) efforts to actively solicit Advisory Council membership from the required stakeholder groups; and (2) these groups’ participation in the development, implementation, and periodic review and update of the wellness policy.
Annual, school-level physical education and health education progress reports (pursuant to federal rules and using reports required by local law).
Documentation of the triennial progress assessment (see below) of the policy for each school under its jurisdiction.
Documentation demonstrating compliance with public notification requirements, including: (1) methods by which the wellness policy, annual progress reports, and triennial assessments are made available to the public; and (2) efforts to notify families about the availability of the wellness policy.

In addition, students’ academic programs and outcomes are captured in the NYCPS’ official data systems of records, such as the Student Transcript and Academic Reporting System (STARS). Data in these systems also reflect schools’ alignment to the New York State and New York City academic policies pertaining to physical education and health. STARS is managed by the NYCPS' Office of Academic Policy and Systems.

Annual Progress Reports and Community Involvement

In consultation with the Advisory Council, NYCPS compiles, reviews, and publishes an annual report to share basic information about overall progress with implementing wellness goals and expectations shared in Empowering Strong and Healthy Students: The NYCPS School Wellness Policy. This annual report is published around the same time each year in the Spring and aggregates available Citywide school-level data for the prior school year. NYCPS reports out a description of the progress made in attaining the goals of the policy. The wellness policy is assessed and updated, as indicated, at least every three years.

NYCPS is committed to being responsive to community input, which begins with awareness of Empowering Strong and Healthy Students: The NYCPS School Wellness Policy. NYCPS actively communicates ways in which representatives of the Citywide Wellness Advisory Council (including a Student Wellness Advocates subcommittee) and others can participate in the periodic review and recommendation process for the wellness policy. NYCPS also uses these mechanisms to inform the community about the availability of the annual report including the triennial report. NYCPS ensures that communications are accessible to the community and accomplished through means similar to other ways that the district and individual schools communicate other important school information to parents and caregivers.

NYCPS actively notifies the public about the content of or any updates to the wellness policy annually, at a minimum.

Physical Education: A Cornerstone of Wellness

In PE, students learn about their bodies, how to take care of them, and how to move, as well as the skills to engage in lifelong healthy habits. PE also helps students maintain focus in school and develop healthy habits for a lifetime. NYCPS must provide students with physical education in accordance with New York State Education Law Section 803, and New York State Education Commissioner’s Regulations, Part 135.4. The NYCPS Academic Policy Guides provide an overview.

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