A School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) is a group appointed by the school district to serve at the district level. Members of the SHAC come from different areas of the community and from within the school district. The majority of members must be parents who are not employed by the district.
SHACs assist the districts in ensuring that local community values are reflected in health education instruction. Additionally, SHACs play an important role in strengthening the connection between health and learning. They can help parents and community stakeholders reinforce the knowledge and skills children need to stay healthy for a lifetime.
“If schools do not deal with children’s health by design, they deal with it by default.” (Health is Academic, 1997)
CDC states six types of health risk behaviors contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems in the United States:
- Tobacco use
- Unhealthy eating
- Inadequate physical activity
- Alcohol and other drug use
- Sexual behaviors that may result in HIV infection or other STDs
- Violence
A majority of students spend most of their time in schools; therefore, we have an opportunity to increase their understanding and help them develop skills that affect healthy, lifelong behaviors. This is a complex issue and schools cannot deal with this alone. The SHAC is an opportunity for parents and community members to partner with schools and become involved in providing recommendations to the School Board to mitigate the issues facing our students.
CLICK HERE for the Texas Department of State Health Services website.
Policies Guiding the SHAC:
BDF (Legal)
FFA (Local)
EHAA (Legal)
