School Health

• Windham Southeast Supervisory Union

• Windham Southwest Supervisory Union

• Windham Central Supervisory Union

We help schools develop wellness teams to build a culture of good health and wellness using the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model.

Windham Southwest Supervisory Union and Windham Southeast Supervisory Union have adopted comprehensive Local Wellness Policies. Windham Central Supervisory Union has drafted a comprehensive policy that is under review for adoption. 

We assist school nurses so they can better support student and family access to health services. Learn more about how we work with school nurses.

Today’s students come to school with more challenges related to health and learning than ever before. Essential School Health Services (link is external) focuses on improving student outcomes, school attendance, the mitigation of challenges such as chronic health conditions, complex medical needs, and other barriers related to social determinants of health, such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, food and housing insecurity, and lack of health care.

We all believe that healthy kids make better learners. A document promoting health, wellness, and Vermont Department of Health initiatives was created for posting on school websites or health pages. Parents and other school community members can easily access this information. School nurses in Windham Southeast, Southwest, and Central promote Vermont's periodicity schedule, Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children and Adolescents from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Their efforts protect and promote student health and academic success.

We help schools support access to medical care and promote medical and dental homes for children and youth. We support school and health care provider relationships and sharing health records.  We support efforts to ensure families know recommended times for well-care visits, and what to expect at the visits following Bright Futures guidelines.

The four goals of an annual well-care visit are disease detection, disease prevention, health promotion, and anticipatory guidance. All major health insurance companies in Vermont pay for one comprehensive well exam per year.

The 802 Smiles Network of School Dental Health Programs connects Vermont's various school dental health programs under one umbrella. Its goal is to eliminate oral health disparities and improve oral health for all Vermont children. Learn More: 

• Dental Health Care in Vermont

• Health Care and Screening Guidelines

• Health Care for Children & Youth in Vermont

• Immunizations - K-12 School Nurses and Administrators

• Vermont Health Connect

The Health Department and the Vermont Agency of Education sponsor the Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The YRBS was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  to monitor priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disease, injury and social problems among middle and high school students. We share this public health data with schools and communities to promote response to decrease risk behaviors.

We encourage schools to use YRBS data to make decisions about how to support student health. One way to do this is the Getting to Y program, which is an opportunity for students to take a lead in bringing meaning to their own Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, and to take steps to strengthen their school and community.

All three of our supervisory unions participate in the YRBS and have sent teams of students to Getting to Y program trainings in recent years. Student presentations to their communities have been informative and well received.

We help schools get grants to support proven strategies such as Farm-to-School, and Girls on the Run. Find out more about strategies to improve health of Vermont’s school-aged children.

Food Connects is our local farm-to-school nonprofit that focuses on programming and wholesale local food distribution. Safe Routes to Schools is promoted and some of our schools participate in the program. Girls on the Run has been popular in many of our schools for many years. Mini-Milers (for both boys and girls) is promoted in Windham Southwest Supervisory Union.

We help local education agencies to meet the objectives of the Medicaid Administrative Claiming agreement.