Comprehensive K-12 Health & Wellness Initiative
Health and education are natural partners. A mounting body of evidence has established links between comprehensive school health programs and educational outcomes, indicating that healthier students:
- attend school more often
- perform better academically
- are significantly less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors
Thanks in part to a generous grant from the City of Irvine’s Educational Partnership Fund, and ongoing support from Hoag Hospital Irvine, IPSF is working with IUSD, health experts and community leaders to implement a comprehensive program to foster healthy and health-literate students. Current objectives include:
- Increasing nursing staff and health clerk time at IUSD school sites. Our goal is to return staffing levels to 9 school nurses and lower the student to nurse ratio to 3400:1
- Responding promptly and effectively to address the outbreak of Pertussis (whooping cough) and other communicable diseases, and continuing to keep staff, parents and community members informed
- Continuing our efforts to engage the medical community in meeting the health needs of the IUSD student population and those who serve them