Dear Friends:

Welcome to our next issue of EdHealth, an online EdSource newsletter focusing on student wellness. Our first issue prompted a terrific number of subscription requests. 

 

If you've already signed up for the EdHealth newsletter, thank you. If not, please let us know if you would like to receive the newsletter by clicking here to subscribe. We anticipate producing the newsletter no more than twice a month and you may cancel your free subscription at any time.  

  

Promoting student wellness -- including both physical and mental health -- has for years been a fixture on college campuses, but much less so in K-12 schools, despite research showing that wellness has a direct impact on a child's ability to learn at optimal levels.

 

In our work, we will take a broad look at various aspects of student wellness  -- from more traditional health issues, such as school nutrition, to those that contribute to a student's emotional well being, including positive school discipline policies and summer programs that strengthen students' relationships with their peers. 

 

And please send us your ideas for issues we should be covering!

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

 

 

Louis Freedberg

Executive Director

EdSource

Social and emotional learning gaining new focus under Common Core

Morning Meeting at Capitol Heights includes how to persevere in solving math problems. Photo: Jane Meredith Adams

 

By Jane Meredith Adams

EdSource Today

 

SACRAMENTO - School is nothing if not an intensely social experience, which is why teacher Michelle Flores posed this question to 24 third graders at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy: "When someone makes a mistake, what do we say?"

 

"That's cool," the third graders responded in unison. "We are experts at making mistakes," said Flores, who incorporates social and emotional instruction, including the idea that making a mistake is not cause for embarrassment, into academics at the charter school using an approach called Responsive Classroom. 

 

As California teachers begin to strategize about how to meet the Common Core standards, some educators say that explicit instruction in social and emotional competence - teaching students how to regulate their emotions, problem-solve, and disagree respectfully, among other abilities - should be a key part of the equation. Social/emotional skills continued

New data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that between 13 and 20 percent of children living in the U.S. experience a mental disorder in a given year,  

according to the report "Mental Health Surveillance Among Children - United States, 2005-2011." Data from 1994 to 2011 finds the prevalence of these conditions to be increasing.

 

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (6.8 percent) was the most prevalent parent-reported current diagnosis among children aged 3-17 years, followed by behavioral or conduct problems (3.5 percent), anxiety (3 percent), depression (2.1 percent), autism spectrum disorders (1.1 percent), and Tourette syndrome (0.2 percent among children aged 6-17 years), according to the report.

   

Suicide, which can result from the interaction of mental disorders and other factors, was the second leading cause of death among children aged 12-17 years in 2010.

  

Approximately 8 percent of adolescents aged 12-17 years reported 14 or more "mentally unhealthy" days in the past month. Mental health data continued

Nutrition: Senate Bill 622 would tax sweetened beverages such as soda and energy drinks a penny per ounce in what its authors say is an effort to help stem the epidemic of childhood obesity. Authors: Senators William Monning, D-Monterey, and Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord. Status: Passed in the Senate committee on governance and finance. Referred to the appropriations committee suspense file because of fiscal costs. Consideration by appropriations committee on May 23 regarding funding for implementation of the bill.

Groundwater. Assembly Bill 69 would create a fund to provide access to safe drinking water for communities with pervasive nitrate-contaminated groundwater. Author: Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno. Status: Passed the Assembly and ordered to the Senate committee on environmental quality.