Dive Brief:

• A new study from the University of California-Davis found that the increasingly popular practice of sending parents reports on their student’s Body Mass Index may have no impact on its intended mission: improving student health.
• Some states and schools have begun sending the reports in recent years as part of an effort to reduce childhood obesity; Arkansas implemented and then scaled back a BMI reporting program, which formed the basis of the study.
• The study found no significant differences in student diet, exercise, or BMI between students who were part of the original reporting initiative and those who did not receive BMI reports.

Dive Insight:

As childhood obesity rates have risen, states and schools have become more involved in promoting healthy behaviors. In total, nine states including Arkansas have implemented BMI reporting initiatives as part of a wider student health push. Some states have also begun tracking student health metrics, typically involving recess length and access to healthcare, in school improvement efforts. The move, as Education Week explains, boosts the visibility of school health programs and encourages public accountability for their outcomes.

The increased awareness has prompted a small flurry of innovation around the link between students’ performance in schools and their health. Some charter schools have sprung up entirely centered around the idea of student health being a key part of performance. Other schools have experimented with involving more active forms of play into instruction, even at higher grades.