A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO SCHOOL-HEALTH PROGRAM NEEDS ASSESSMENTS

An assessment of health promotion needs represents a fundamental step for developing comprehensive school health programs. This project deve loped and tested an approach for school districts to use when conducti ng a district-wide needs assessment of school health programs. The app roach assumes a needs assessment should be multidimensional and compre hensive. Seven priority health-related behaviors were included as well as eight components of a school health program identified by Kolbe. T his paper describes each aspect of the needs assessment, discusses the importance of perspectives provided by each component, and provides r ecommendations for districts interested in conducting an assessment.