Wellness School Assessment Tool Version 3.0: An Updated Quantitative Measure of Written School Wellness Policies

Prev Chronic Dis. 2020 Jul 2:17:E52. doi: 10.5888/pcd17.190373.

Abstract

Schools play an important role in promoting student wellness. As directed by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, the US Department of Agriculture updated the requirements for written school wellness policies in 2016. The WellSAT (Wellness School Assessment Tool) is an online tool that provides a quantitative score for wellness policy comprehensiveness and strength. The WellSAT has been updated 3 times over the past decade to remain current with federal law and best practices. In this article, we describe the process of updating to WellSAT 3.0. The steps included: reviewing the language of each item linked to a federal provision; adding and deleting items based on frequencies from the National Wellness Policy Study and the empirical support for specific policies; gathering feedback from a survey of experts (N = 77) about best practices and measure usability; and establishing intercoder reliability in a national sample (N = 50) of policies. We conclude with recommendations and guidance for the use of WellSAT 3.0.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Health Policy / legislation & jurisprudence*
  • Health Promotion / standards
  • Healthy Lifestyle
  • Humans
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • School Health Services / standards*
  • Schools / standards*
  • United States