3. Assess Needs
Once your team is formed, you need to determine what aspects of your district's current policies concerning nutrition, physical activity, and nutrition education are working, and what needs to be improved. This is one of the most important steps to help you develop and implement a policy that will fit your district's needs.
Your Objectives
During this phase, the team must determine what your district is already doing about nutrition, nutrition education, and fitness, and what it needs to do differently. You can then craft a policy to focus specifically on areas that need improvement.
As you accumulate your findings, it's important to capture them and translate them into a plan of action. Have your team assess the district’s needs by completing a needs assessment checklist. This will help you evaluate various elements of your school or district's performance and develop action plans for each area of concern.
Use One of These Checklists to Assess your District
- Michigan Healthy School Assessment Tool (HSAT)
- School Health Index from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Changing the Scene Improvement Checklist
- Marketing Assessment Tool, CA Project LEAN
Hear from the Virtual Wellness Policy Team
- How did you assess the current situation in your district?
- What did you find as you began your work on wellness policy?
- What should I keep in mind as I assess the needs of my district regarding a wellness policy?
- When you did an assessment of the physical fitness of students in your district, what did you find?
- What's an attitudinal change that you need to address in nutrition?