From the Dinner Table to the State House.

• Author: Guiden, Mary
• Position: School health programs - Statistical Data Included

A Tennessee lawmaker, moved by his wife's tales from her job as a school nurse, has taken a stand to improve school health programs.

Tennessee Representative Ken Givens doesn't remember the exact moment he decided to take on school health as an issue, but he does remember casually discussing the topic regularly over dinner with his wife Connie, who worked as a school nurse for 27 years.

"Some of the stories she's told me have been just remarkable. Connie's worked in a school system that had almost 8,000 kids, and she's seen it all," he says.

Representative Givens remembers one story in particular. A teacher at Connie's school told her that one little boy hadn't shown up for school and that the attendance office hadn't looked into the absence. The school asked Connie to check it out, to see what the problem was. She went to the house, thinking the kid probably was sick.

Was it a cold, an earache or a sore throat? Unfortunately, the problem was a little more basic than that. "He didn't have any shoes," explains Givens. "The little boy's mother lived in public housing and received public assistance. She just said simply that he had worn out his last pair of tennis shoes and was not in school for that reason. He missed two or three days of school before they checked on him."

Givens and his wife didn't just file away the story as another "don't we have things to be thankful for" tale. Instead they decided to take some action to get the child back in school quickly. "Connie and I went out on our own that night when she told me the story and bought the kid some shoes, socks and underwear, that type of thing. We took them to him the next morning, and he was back in school," he says.

Though they stepped in for that particular instance, Givens and his wife knew they couldn't solve every child's problem in the state. They also knew from Connie's experiences that many kids' difficulties are caused by more than the lack of shoes. So at one point, Connie began to tell Ken about a concept known as coordinated school health.

A COORDINATED APPROACH

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed what's known as a coordinated school health program in 1987 to promote a more balanced approach to health systems in schools. The program includes eight components: health and physical education, health and nutrition services, counseling and psychological services, special health programs for staff, healthy environment, and parent and community...