for a national-level surveillance system that will address the current gaps in surveillance by current federally and non-federally funded systems and surveys.



Three major federal-level surveillance systems and surveys are currently in place and are scheduled to continue for at least the next 2-3 years, if not indefinitely.

Each of these surveillance systems and surveys is funded by a government agency, and each collects detailed data on the breadth and depth of existing state laws, district policies, and related school practices; the implementation of said laws, policies, and practices; and their effects on student health outcomes.

The next section describes the strengths, primary areas of focus, periodicity, and other key characteristics for each of three major national surveillance systems and surveys.

In so doing, it also highlights important gaps in what they cover, individually and collectively, and areas where linkage with other relevant surveys or research efforts would provide a more detailed picture of school wellness policies and their effects.

1.

School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study/School Nutrition Dietary Assessment
The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment (SNDA) is administrated by the USDA s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) every 5 years and collects and analyzes nationally representative data on school meals and the school meal environment (including competitive foods) at the district- and school-levels, with individual-level dietary information collected every 10 years.14 SNDA-V will be administered as the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study (SNMCS) in SY 2014-2015 and will include SNDA-type, meal assessment data as well as data on meal cost, dietary recall, plate waste, and meals compliance with standards.

SNDA/SNMCS is the only assessment that examines specifically the nutritional quality of school meals, how and if those meals are meeting the new standards, and meal cost.

Examining SNDA/SNMCS data together with state law and district policy data, which SNDA does not currently collect, has the potential to demonstrate how the laws and policies at the state- and district-level are being implemented in, or affecting, lunchrooms (with regard to meal planning and meal environment) and students (with regard to meal cost and diet).

2.

Classification of Laws Associated with School Students
The National Cancer Institute s Classification of Laws Associated with School Students (C.L.A.S.S.) is a policy classification system that can be used to evaluate state-level codified laws for nutrition and physical education in schools across all 50 states and the District of Columbia by grade level.

C.L.A.S.S.

uses state law as the data source and scores the concordance between state laws and national school wellness policy mandates.

Currently, C.L.A.S.S.

measures are collected annually, with the next cycle beginning in 2014.

C.L.A.S.S.

data are publicly available for use by researchers, policy makers, and school administrators to obtain information on state laws associated with childhood obesity, track policy changes over time, test relationships between law and behavior, associate C.L.A.S.S.

scores with state- and school district-policies, and link to information about obesity and other cancer-related behaviors.

C.L.A.S.S.

also offers two data visualization tools: (1) a map function that depicts the strength of specific policy areas by grade level across states, and (2) a profile function that depicts policy scores across grade levels within each state by year.

While C.L.A.S.S.

is the only classification system that objectively scores state laws on nutritional and physical activity, it does not identify specific elements of the state laws.

Therefore, additional, complementary research is required to parse out and examine relationships between individual policy components (e.g., addressing sugar or fat content in school foods) and related school practices and student outcomes (e.g., diet, physical activity, BMI).

3.

School Health Policies and Practices Study
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS) is a national, comprehensive survey conducted to assess school wellness at the state-, district-, school-, and classroom-levels.

SHPPS surveys cover health education, physical education, health services, mental health and social services, nutrition services, healthy and safe school environments, and faculty and staff health promotion.

Due to the comprehensive design of SHPPS, wellness policy data may be linked with other school health data.

SHPPS data are collected every two years, alternating school- and classroom-level data collection with district-level data collection.

In its next cycle (2014), SHPPS will collect school- and classroom-level data, and in the following cycle (2016) it will collect district-level data.

Beginning in 2016, SHPPS will no longer collect state-level data.

SHPPS is unique in monitoring both school health policies and school wellness policies, which is essential for linking LWPs to student health outcomes such as services received, safety, and environments.

The multi-level aspect of SHPPS assessments presents the opportunity for linking this data with state law data in order to show the effects of state laws on LWPs, and the effects of LWPs on overall health.

However, SHPPS data are not collected annually.



Great progress has been made in adopting school wellness policies and in developing surveillance systems to monitor their implementation and impact.

Yet continued progress in school wellness, school wellness policy development, and positive impacts will require surveillance that provides a fuller understanding of the strengths and limitations of current policies, and that chart the course for evidence-based improvements.

This competitive cooperative agreement solicits applications for a national-level surveillance system that will address the most important gaps in the coverage of the existing school wellness policy surveillance systems and surveys.

Applicants seeking funding under this School Wellness Policy Cooperative Agreement should consider, at a minimum, the following specific capabilities when developing their proposals:
• The capability to link enacted school district wellness policy and related state law data with data being collected through other existing surveillance systems (e.g., SNDA, CLASS, SHPPS) in 2014-2015 (i.e., data collection occurring at various levels as outlined above);
• The capability to conduct a nationwide evaluation of the scope of "on-the-books" (enacted) school district wellness policies and related state laws;
• The ability to collect and analyze qualitative data that can explore the implementation of and compliance with HHFKA policies across various stakeholders (e.g., administrators, school food authorities, parents, children, etc.);
• The capacity to develop and disseminate timely policy briefs, fact sheets, and other translation products (e.g., infographics) to inform the USDA, Congress, and the research field of key school wellness policy surveillance results and gaps as well as to produce papers for peer-reviewed publication; and

The focus of single or multiple-entity agency funding for the winning proposal(s) should be minimally to compile "on-the-books" wellness policy data for a nationally representative sample of public school districts and concomitant state laws using an innovative approach that encompasses the above-listed potential areas of focus and other policy opportunities.

The Grantees (Recipients) shall work cooperatively with FNS on the study design and evaluation.