Schools Get Healthy As Law Takes Hold

Elena Serrano, 7, second right, eats an ice cream sandwich during lunch at the Four Seasons Elementary School in St. Paul, Minn., June 29, 2006. The lunch included applesauce, baked tater tots and sloppy joes on wheat buns. Schools have until the end of summer to meet federally mandated "wellness policies" regarding nutrition and physical activity. (AP Photo/Eric Miller, file) (Eric Miller - AP)

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- They're promising to keep closer tabs on student lunch trays, pull sugary treats from vending machines and classroom celebrations and encourage more pulse-raising activities during the school day.

The nation's public schools are under orders to adopt nutrition and exercise goals before classes resume in the fall. The written wellness policies are required by a federal law that took effect July 1.

"Some school districts and school buildings have already made a lot of these changes and some have done nothing just because they've never been required to," said Alicia Moag-Stahlberg, executive director of Action for Healthy Kids, a 50-state nonprofit network. "Frankly, schools that have never had this conversation are having it."

The law's primary objective is straightforward: combatting rising childhood obesity rates. Overweight children miss more school than their average weight counterparts, according to the National School Boards Association. Backers also argue that reducing sugar in students' diets leads to greater focus in the classroom.

Some states are making similar efforts through new laws and policies, and the federal law gives school boards wide latitude, causing vast differences in their approaches.

In Tennessee's Williamson County, for instance, the broadly worded policy runs 23 lines; in Hampton, N.H., the five-page plan is so detailed it suggests elementary students have "at least two colors other than white and brown as part of their lunch meal."

Committees comprised of administrators, teachers, parents and students are looking well beyond the cafeteria for ways to promote healthier eating habits and more physical activity.

In St. Paul, students will find water, fruit juice and milk in vending machines that used to dispense soda. In Farmington, Utah, schools are holding recess before lunch so kids don't give short shrift to their meals in the race to the playground.

Teachers in Cape Girardeau, Mo., will encounter restrictions on goodies they can give out in their classrooms. Lollipops and sodas will be no-nos.

Rhonda Dunham, a principal at an elementary school in the district, will try other rewards for students who meet homework goals or display good behavior. One plan is to set up elegant lunches, where kids get specially prepared meals at tables with linen cloths, china and glassware.

"They feel a bit more grownup that way," she said.

Classroom candy also has lost favor in the northwestern Minnesota district of Perham Dent.