District gets delay in mandate to track student obesity

By BRETT NUCKLES
Published: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 12:19 AM EDT
Citing inadequate time and funding, the Westerville school board voted to delay the implementation of the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act. The school board unanimously voted to approve an official waiver to delay the implementation of the program for one year at a meeting Monday, Oct. 26. The state-mandated health measure would have required the school district monitor each student’s body mass index, a measure that would track the rate of childhood obesity among district students. The health measure was part of Ohio Senate Bill 210,
the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act, signed into law by congress in June 2010. The law contains provisions meant to combat childhood obesity, requiring schools to regularly conduct BMI screenings each year for all students and to notify parents of overweight students facing potential health risks. BMI screenings would be conducted for students in kindergarten and grades 3, 5 and 9. BMI measurements are used to estimate a healthy body weight based on an individual’s height. Senate Bill 210 would also require the district to engage all students in at least 30 minutes of “rigorous physical activity” each day, not counting recess time. Student Services Coordinator Debbie Meissner said that the district needed to delay the initiative because it hasn’t yet had enough time to develop a thorough plan for implementation. “This is important legislation and an important fight against childhood obesity,” she said. “We are asking to delay it so that we can develop a good plan.” The state-mandated program leaves the details up to individual districts. The Westerville district is still hammering out how it will conduct the BMI screenings and how it will share that information with parents. Meissner said that officials are also preparing to answer questions from parents that will inevitably be generated by the screenings. “This requires stakeholder input for us to figure out the best course of action in how to involve nurses, (physical education) teachers and parents,” she said’¦ http://www.snponline.com/articles/2010/11/06/westerville_news_and_public_opinion/schools/webmi%2011-0_20101102_1112pm_3.txt