• History & Background
• How the Recognition Program Works
• Other Steps to Create A Healthy School Environment
• Acknowledgements

History & Background

The idea for the Healthy School Environment Recognition Program (HSERP) began when Governor Jennifer Granholm learned about a number of healthy changes that had been made at a Michigan school and their resulting impact on students, parents and staff. The Governor and Michigan’s Surgeon General, Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, were impressed at the initiative taken by this school as well as by the positive results. The Surgeon General joined with Michigan Action for Healthy Kids to develop the HSERP. They wanted schools to be recognized and applauded when outstanding changes were made related to healthy eating, physical activity and tobacco-free lifestyles and they wanted these successes to be shared with other schools to provide ideas of the kinds of positive changes that can be made. The first awards were presented to 30 Michigan schools in 2006.

• Apply for the recognition program;
• Receive recognition for their achievements; and
• Share the news to inspire and assist other schools.

How the Recognition Program Works

The Healthy School Environment Recognition Program starts with an online recognition program application for schools to answer and submit. The application consists of seven sections. Sections 1 through 5 focus on topic areas related to a healthy school environment. These topics complement the components of Dr. Wisdom’s Michigan Steps Up initiative to create healthy lifestyles and include:

• Section 1: Planning and Oversight
• Section 2: Policies
• Section 3: Physical Education/Physical Activity
• Section 4: Healthy Eating/Nutrition Education
• Section 5: Tobacco-Free Lifestyles
• Section 6: Additional Accomplishments
• Section 7: Submit Your Application

The questions ask the school to evaluate their activities and accomplishments; responses result in points. Total points, with certain minimum scores for each section, determine which recognition level (if any) the school achieved.

Although the accomplishments reflected in the recognition program applications take time to achieve, answering the questions in the application will take schools only about 30 minutes. The application is designed so that schools can enter their responses over as many sessions as they like and so that more than one person can help complete the application. Each time, a school enters responses and saves their work, an interim score is generated and displayed on a scorecard page so that applicants can monitor their progress.

Upon completion of the questions, schools submit their application electronically and obtain a final score. Schools must also have submitted a success story since February 1, 2008 to be eligible for recognition. See the Success Story section for more details on this requirement.

After submitting the recognition application and success story, schools that achieve one of the recognition levels will be acknowledged in a number of ways.

The online Recognition Program application is available on this website. Click here to register your school and begin completing the recognition program application. The recognition application deadline for both the 2008- 2009 and 2009-2010 school years is January 15, 2010.

Other Steps to Create A Healthy School Environment

The Michigan Department of Community Health in collaboration with several other organizations has also developed an online tool - the Healthy School Action Tools - to help schools determine ways to create a healthier school environment and to develop an action plan. To learn more about the Healthy School Action Tools or to complete it, please visit www.mihealthtools.org/hsat.

For other steps you can take, please visit the About Healthy School Environments section of this website.