Whole School, Whole Community Whole Child Approach in Health Education

Health Education is one of the ten components represented in the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model.

In 2014, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with ASCD revised the former Coordinated School Health Model into the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model to provide a framework in which schools and districts would work to increase collaboration, coordination, consistency around school health issues. The model includes ten components (in blue) that strive to work collaboratively and consistently to improve the health and well-being of students and staff. One of the ten components is Health Education. 

 

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model with the child in the center is a way to ensure that children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.  Effective health education aligned with the characteristics of effective health education and taught by a qualified health educator can provide a foundation for healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged students. Health education provides the foundation for healthy decision making and supports students ability to create a safe environment through effective advocacy and communication skills. Health education is steeped in real world problems and can be used to engage students in authentic learning that is real, relevant, and right now. Health Education provides opportunities for students to learn about and practice challenging skills applied to engaging content and when done effectively health education can be a way to support students based on their individual needs and goals.  

Beyond these tenets health education can be most effectively implemented with a coordinated effort that involves each of the component areas. The document below provides examples of how each component areas can support health education as well as a variety of other practices for WSCC and health education.

Collaborative on School & Child Health Practice Brief

This Brief is one of ten briefs that UCONN's Collaborative on School and Child Health (CSCH) developed aligned to each of the ten Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child components. Below is the Brief on Health Education and health education's relevance to child outcomes.