A new survey is asking Denver Public Schools families to prioritize what they believe are the most pressing health concerns facing students.
DPS officials say the answers will help them update the district’s health goals in the Health Agenda 2020.
Officials working on the rewrite have studied local health data and research. From that work with Denver Public Health, the survey zeroes in on questions about nine health topics that research shows might have the highest impact on education. Among those topics are nutrition, substance use, teen pregnancy, vision and asthma.
Having only broad topics instead of drafts of goals is a change from the last time the district worked on a health agenda.
“This lends itself for more engagement,” said Scott Romero, the district’s school health coordinator.
The . DPS officials say most of those were met.
Among them was increasing the number of school-based health centers in schools. The goal was to add three to five by 2015. By this fall, DPS will have health centers in 17 schools, up from 12 five years ago.
The number of students who eat school breakfast has increased, the and the number of school nurses, psychologists and counselors also grew, said Amber Leytem, Healthy Schools Program manager for DPS. The survey, being conducted by Denver Public Health, .
“The DPS health agenda, their mission, is aligned with Denver Public Health’s mission,” said Theresa Mickiewicz, a data application analyst at Denver Public Health. “Healthier kids spend more time in school. Graduation from high school is associated with a lot of positive outcomes.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or twitter.com/yeseniarobles
To take the dps health survey:
Updated February 9, 2015 at 4:34 p.m.: This story has been updated to correct Amber Leytem’s title. Leytem is the Healthy Schools Program manager for DPS.
