School Wellness Programs Provide Resources for NYC Public Schools to Address Components of the District Wellness Policy

Abstract

To identify common attributes of New York City (NYC) wellness programs and whether their reported deliverables address components of the district wellness policy. In this descriptive analysis, the websites of NYC school wellness programs serving a minimum of 25 public schools were examined to identify program attributes and reported deliverables. These deliverables were compared to the components of the NYC Department of Education Wellness Policy that are up to schools to implement and subsequently are ideal for wellness program assistance: school wellness councils, nutrition education and promotion, physical activity opportunities and physical education, and staff wellness. Wellness program attributes are described by descriptive statistics. The 19 wellness programs were provided across 678 of the 1,532 NYC public schools. The most common required inputs from schools were school staff (30%) and space (15%). In addition to these inputs, 25% of programs required participating schools to have a large percentage of low-income students, and 45% had specific age or grade requirements. Wellness programs provide a variety of resources to schools: food (25%), program staffing (25%), and training for school staff (40%). The most common wellness policy components addressed were nutrition education and promotion (58%) and physical activity opportunities and physical education (47%). Staff wellness (11%) and school wellness councils (21%) were least often addressed. Serving 678 schools, wellness programs provide essential resources to address components of the NYC district wellness policy. Findings suggest that NYC schools may need additional resources to implement the staff wellness and school wellness council policy mandates.