Overview
Children spend more time at school than anywhere else except home; thus, schools can have a major effect on children's health by providing a healthy physical environment, serving meals and snacks built around sound nutritional guidelines, and teaching about health, as well as modelling and promoting healthy behaviors. School health-services programs involve not only school nurses and focus not only on nursing practice, standards and performance issues, they also include services and classes to teach students the information and skills they need to become health-literate, to maintain and improve their health, to prevent disease and to reduce risky behaviors impacting health. The Encyclopedia of School Health offers quick access to health and wellness information most relevant to children. Valuable guidance is provided on: developmental stages; acute and chronic illnesses; special education; nutrition; crisis response; prevention; and more.