On April 9, 2019, Bill Dietz delivered testimony before DC Council’s Committee of the Whole on the FY2020 proposed public school budget and urged Council to ensure the newly passed Healthy Students Amendments Act (HSAA) receive full funding to enable implementation this year. Dietz is a commissioner on DC’s Healthy Youth and Schools Commission and chairs its Subcommittee on Physical Activity, which was instrumental in making recommendations to improve access to physical activity for the District’s students, culminating in passage of the HSAA last December. “There is no drug that has more positive effects on health and brain function than physical activity,” Dietz testified, “Solid evidence indicates that this amount of physical activity not only is essential for health, but also supports children’s cognitive development and impacts their academic performance.” Dietz’s testimony also urged the funding of the Student Fair Access to Schools Act, to enable implementation of trauma-informed supports for students who experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). See full testimony here.
Jen Sacheck, Chair of the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Science, also submitted testimony in support of full implementation of the Healthy Students Amendments Act. Along with SPH students and staff over the past year, Sacheck has begun to collect baseline physical activity data on nearly 700 DCPS students Pre-K through 5th grade during school hours. Results revealed a significant “need for improved physical activity throughout the school day, but also sex differences and a precipitous decline in physical activity across the elementary school years,” she writes. Strikingly, the Pre-K students, who “should be our most active” had physical activity levels that were no higher than the 1st graders measured. The recommendation for Pre-K is two times that of elementary school students. See full testimony here.
In addition, Jeff Hild, Policy Director at the Redstone Center, provided testimony to the Council’s Committee on Health supporting funding for the Community Health Administration, which supports programs focused on access to healthy foods, physical activity and other interventions aimed at addressing health disparities in the District. Hild also advocated for the expansion of the HealthySteps pediatric care model, which supports families in identifying, understanding and managing parenting challenges. See full testimony here.