I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1439
To create ‘‘Healthy American Schools,’’ where children will learn the lifelong
health and fitness skills vital to developing a smart body and smart
mind and to empower every school with the ability to become a healthy
school, built on a firm foundation of ‘‘healthy mind and healthy body’’
curricula.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 24, 1993
Mr. ANDREWS of Texas (for himself, Mr. EVANS, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. FROST,
Mrs. MINK, and Mr. DEFAZIO) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Education and Labor
A BILL
To create ‘‘Healthy American Schools,’’ where children will
learn the lifelong health and fitness skills vital to devel-
oping a smart body and smart mind and to empower
every school with the ability to become a healthy school,
built on a firm foundation of ‘‘healthy mind and healthy
body’’ curricula.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Students-
Healthy Schools Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
(1) comprehensive, high quality education for
the children of the United States has always been
important, but in recent years it has become even
more critical to the social and economic viability of
our country;
(2) unhealthy children do not learn well and
tend to grow into unhealthy adults, never realizing
their full potential;
(3) without an increased focus on the health of
our children, the United States will not be able to
successfully compete in the 21st century;
(4) given the international dimensions of the
health and education challenges facing the United
States, the Federal Government should play a key
role in the national effort to equip all American chil-
dren with the intellectual and physical skills needed
to compete in the new and rapidly changing global
marketplace;
(5) although States and localities bear the pri-
mary responsibility for elementary and secondary
education, strong national leadership, from the Con-
gress and the Executive branch, is vital to the future
health of our children, schools, and the United
States;
(6) studies show that high quality, comprehen-
sive educational care, as early as 3 years of age,
translates into well-rounded individuals, better
school performance, lower drop-out rates, lower teen-
age pregnancy rates, lower unemployment rates, and
lower crime rates;
(7) a better understanding of the principles of
good health, taught in a gender and culturally com-
petent manner, could help children succeed in school
and become active, productive members of society;
(8) statistics on federally supported efforts to
improve comprehensive school health curriculum
demonstrate the effectiveness of preventive programs
on the knowledge, behavior, and fitness of children
and adolescents, yet few school systems offer such
programs and most States do not have the resources
to enforce sequential school health education re-
quirements;
(9) several different agencies located in the De-
partments of Health and Human Services, Edu-
cation, Agriculture, Interior, Energy, Defense, and
Transportation currently administer school health
education programs in areas such as AIDS edu-
cation, drug abuse education, nutrition, physical fit-
ness, smoking prevention, and asthma education;
(10) throughout the 1980s, Federal school
health education efforts lacked coordination, de-
spite—
(A) the 1978 legislative mandate directing
the Commissioner of Education at what was
then the Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare to consult with the Public Health Serv-
ice and the Surgeon General to ‘‘assure coordi-
nation and prevent duplication of effort’’ in all
school health education programs; and
(B) the re-authorization and funding in
1988 of the Department of Education’s Office
of Comprehensive School Health Education;
(11) a coordinated Federal effort is needed to
help State and local educational agencies develop
and implement comprehensive school health edu-
cation programs;
(12) over the past several years, the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services has led most
Federal health education efforts, and the Public
Health Service’s 1990 report entitled ‘‘Healthy Peo-
ple 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention Objectives’’ outlines a comprehensive na-
tional strategy for improving the health of all Ameri-
cans during this decade and includes specific goals
related to school health education;
(13) one of the chief ‘‘Healthy People 2000’’
objectives is to increase to at least 75 percent the
proportion of the Nation’s elementary and secondary
schools that provide planned and sequential kinder-
garten through 12th grade quality school health edu-
cation; and
(14) the President and the Nation’s governors
have set six national education goals, as part of a
strategy to create a new generation of American
schools, which complement the Healthy People 2000
goals and form the basis of a healthy partnership.
(b) PURPOSES.—It is the purpose of this Act to—
(1) provide the Federal leadership needed to
create Healthy American Schools, the building
blocks of a healthy and strong education system ca-
pable of providing every child with the lifelong skills
needed to become an intellectually and physically fit
member of a productive work force;
(2) ensure that all federally funded school
health education programs, including alcohol and
substance abuse prevention programs, are coordi-
nated and share the goals of reducing categorical
barriers and comprehensively encouraging healthy
students and healthy schools;
(3) designate a central office within the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services for the coordi-
nation and direction of Federal school health edu-
cation efforts;
(4) establish a Federal clearinghouse where
teachers can easily access health education informa-
tion through the use of innovative and interactive
technologies;
(5) establish an independent advisory council of
highly respected, bipartisan, diverse experts to
study, make recommendations, and identify core na-
tional health education goals to be known as the
‘‘Healthy Students-Healthy Schools Goals’’ that are
consistent with the Healthy People 2000 Objectives;
(6) develop standards and a model framework
for sequential Comprehensive School Health Edu-
cation programs for use in kindergarten through
grade 12;
(7) 
establish 
a 
comprehensive 
framework
through which the Department of Health and
Human Services will coordinate a national effort to
assess, on a continuing basis, the health-related
knowledge and behaviors of the Nation’s school chil-
dren and recognize schools which have successfully
grown into Healthy American Schools; and
(8) establish an interagency task force on
school health education to reduce categorical bar-
riers and foster cooperation among Federal agencies
carrying out school health education programs.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
As used in the Act:
(1) ADVISORY COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘Advisory
Council’’ means the Healthy Students-Healthy
Schools Advisory Council established under section
5.
(2) COMPREHENSIVE
HEALTH
EDUCATION.—
The term ‘‘comprehensive health education’’ means
a planned, sequential, kindergarten through grade
12 curriculum that addresses the physical, mental,
emotional and social dimensions of health. Such cur-
riculum shall—
(A) be designed to assist students in devel-
oping the knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral
skills needed to make positive health choices
and maintain and improve their health, prevent
disease, and reduce health-related risk behav-
iors;
(B) permit students to develop and dem-
onstrate increasingly sophisticated health-relat-
ed knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices;
and
(C) be comprehensive and include a variety
of topics such as personal health, family health,
community health, consumer health, environ-
mental health, family life, mental and emotional
health, injury prevention and safety, nutrition,
prevention and control of disease, and sub-
stance use and abuse, taught by qualified teach-
ers who have been trained to teach the subject.
(3) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’
means the Department of Health and Human Serv-
ices.
(4) LOCAL
EDUCATION
AGENCY.—The term
‘‘local education agency’’ means the local education
agencies, as defined in section 1471(12) of the Ele-
mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and
Federally recognized Indian tribes that are respon-
sible for providing elementary and secondary edu-
cation for tribal members.
(5) HEALTHY PEOPLE 2000 OBJECTIVES.—The
term ‘‘Healthy People 2000 Objectives’’ means the
300 specific health objectives in 22 priority areas,
such as fitness, nutrition, tobacco, maternal and in-
fant health, cancer, cardiovascular disease, HIV dis-
ease, school health, immunization and environmental
health, identified by the Secretary of Health and
Human Services in the report entitled ‘‘Healthy Peo-
ple 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention Objectives’’.
(6) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(7) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of
the several States, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American
Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Trust Territory of
the Pacific Islands, and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands.
SEC. 4. DESIGNATION OF HEALTHY STUDENTS-HEALTHY
SCHOOLS OFFICE.
(a) DESIGNATION.—The Secretary shall designate,
within the Centers for Disease Control, an office to serve
as the Healthy Students-Healthy Schools Office to carry
out the functions and activities described in subsection (b).
(b) FUNCTIONS AND ACTIVITIES.—The Office des-
ignated under subsection (a) shall—
(1) assist State and local educational agencies
in their efforts to—
(A) develop and maintain comprehensive
sequential school health education programs
and curricula, which, to the extent practicable,
are based on the model framework developed by
the Advisory Council, in all elementary and sec-
ondary schools within their jurisdiction;
(B) train teachers in comprehensive se-
quential school health education;
(C) integrate and encourage school-, com-
munity-based, and public-private health pro-
motion partnerships and efforts;
(D) integrate health education programs
with health and social services for school-age
youth;
(E) provide nutritious school food services;
and
(F) encourage healthy, tobacco-free school
environments;
(2) provide technical support to State and local
educational agencies and educators concerning
health education programs and curricula and admin-
ister the grant program authorized under section 7;
(3) establish and maintain a national clearing-
house, using advanced technologies to the maximum
extent practicable, and mechanism for the wide dis-
semination of school health education material, in-
cluding written, audio-visual, and electronically-con-
veyed information to educators, schools, health care
providers, and other individuals, organizations, and
governmental entities;
(4) assist States in coordinating school-based
programs that will help ensure progress toward rel-
evant Healthy People 2000 Objectives and the
Healthy Students-Healthy Schools Goals established
under section 5;
(5) assist States in developing mechanisms to
uniformly evaluate competency based health edu-
cation skills and physical fitness and to collect and
maintain uniform data, including baseline data on a
continuing basis, on health behavior indicators, in-
cluding absenteeism due to pregnancy and ill-health,
which will measure progress toward relevant Healthy
People 2000 Objectives and the Healthy Students-
Healthy Schools Goals established under this Act;
(6) assist the Secretary in preparing an annual
report on the status of school health education in
the United States, as required under this section;
and
(7) coordinate with other Federal school health
education efforts and assist in reducing categorical