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Wellness Policies

The Local School Wellness Policy requirement, mandated by the United States Department of Agriculture through the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, and further strengthened by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, requires the development and implementation of a school wellness policy to establish a school environment that promotes students’ health, well-being, and ability to learn by supporting healthy eating and physical activity.

District Wellness Policy Assessment

In 2007, the UC Davis Center for Nutrition in Schools (CNS) developed a district wellness policy assessment, called the School and Community Actions for Nutrition (SCAN) Survey.  This self-assessment tool is designed to provide members of the school community with an easy and effective method for monitoring and evaluating progress in nutrition-related areas of the school district that will positively assist children in improving food behaviors and promote health.

The SCAN Survey addresses the following areas:

  • Wellness Policy Implementation
  • School Environment
  • Student Education Systems
  • Professional Development
  • Parent Involvement
  • Community Partnerships

The SCAN Survey is set up in a rubric format with a scoring system, allowing for a straightforward and comprehensive assessment of the existing district's policies and programs related to nutrition.

We invite you to download the SCAN Survey:

School Site Environmental Wellness Assessment

The “Shaping Healthy Choices School Health Check” or “SHC²” questionnaire is a tool that can be used to score a school’s environment based on the Shaping Healthy Choices Program’s components and other health and wellness activities. 

The SHC² questionnaire addresses the following areas:

  • Nutrition and Physical Activity Education and Promotion 
  • Family and Community Partnerships
  • Food Available on Campus
  • Supporting Local and Regional Agriculture 
  • Wellness Policy Implementation

The questionnaire is designed to evaluate one school site at a time, as opposed to evaluating an entire school district. There are a variety of ways one may choose to use the questionnaire:

Program Evaluation: The SHC² questionnaire may be completed before and after any health program is implemented in order to measure the program’s impact on the school environment.

Idea Generator: The SHC² questionnaire may be used to identify school site strengths and areas in need of improvement. In doing so, a stakeholder can generate ideas to build upon existing community assets to help strengthen areas that need improvement.

Community Engagement: The SHC² questionnaire may be used to bring school community stakeholders together to begin/continue the conversation of health and nutrition at the school site. For example, a teacher, parent, and principal may complete the SHC² together as a group and use the results to guide a discussion of ways in which they plan to contribute to improving the overall SHC² score.

Wellness Policy Assessment: The  SHC² questionnaire may be used to measure wellness policy implementation at any time point desired.

If you have any questions about how to use the SHC² tool, please contact the Center for Nutrition in Schools office at (530) 752-3387.

We invite you to download the SHC² questionnaire:

External Resources 

On our External Resources page we provide links to external sites with content that may be of use to individuals seeking information about curriculum related to nutrition in schools.