Welcome to
the section of our web site devoted to School Health Policies. This section
provides advice, research on effective policies, suggested content and
numerous examples of policies that can and should be adopted by school
boards, schools, local health authorities, municipalities/recreation
departments, police services and social services/children’s agencies as well
as the government departments and ministries that work with these local
agencies.
These web pages also include a
policy-making tool that facilitates the use of a proven and effective
process of policy formulation, adoption, implementation and evaluation.
Effective policymaking is far more than
simply drafting a written statement to be adopted by relevant authority. It
is an engaging process that helps agencies, employees and the communities
they serve to reach a common understanding about a problem, to develop an
approach and a set of actions to address that problem, to define how current
and new resources will be allocated to support those actions and to
establish a realistic set of expectations for progress that will be reported
back to all constituents.
To learn more about the principles under
lying policy-making, understanding the context, the cyclical steps in
policy-making, a suggested range of policies for most Canadian situations
and establishing a macro-policy requiring a comprehensive school-community
approach, read through our Overview.
For a list of policy issues and a brief
description of their essential coverage, go to the subsection on suggested
Topics.
Check out the growing collection of Policy
Examples and also see our in-depth treatment of selected Policy Collections.
Finally, don’t miss our Suggested Readings
and Resources.
