COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAMS

 WHEREAS, recent findings of the National Commission on the Role of the School and the Community in Improving Adolescent Health, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, the National Commission on Children and others have concluded that American children face unprecedented risks to their personal safety and health; and

WHEREAS, the major threats to the health of American children involve behavior choices, environmental, social and economic circumstances and, therefore, may be preventable through timely intervention and medical attention; and

WHEREAS, one in ten¾more than 1 million¾American teenage girls becomes pregnant each year, double the rate of any other industrialized nation; and

WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control estimates a three-fold increase in the rate of sexually transmitted disease among teenagers over the past three decades; and

WHEREAS, according to the American Medical Association, adolescents are sexually active at younger ages, so that 17 percent of girls and 29 percent of boys have had sexual intercourse by age 16; and

WHEREAS, young adults account for 20 percent of all people with AIDS, indicating that many, if not most, had contracted the virus while still in their teens; and

WHEREAS, alcohol-related automobile accidents are the leading cause of death among all adolescents, killing 10 teenagers every day; and

WHEREAS, drug and tobacco use by children remains at dangerously high levels; and

WHEREAS, school-age children face threats of serious violence in their daily lives, as an estimated 135,000 American students bring guns to school on any given day, and at 40 deaths per 100,000, homicide is the leading cause of death among minority youth in the 15- to 19-year-old age group; and

WHEREAS, every year 2 million new cases of child abuse are reported to authorities; and

WHEREAS, suicide is the second most frequent cause of death among teenagers, with one in 10 boys and nearly one in five girls having made at least one attempt to take their own lives; and

WHEREAS, mental disorders are the major cause of disability among teenagers; and

WHEREAS, an estimated 20 percent of school-age children and 23 percent of preschoolers live in poverty, and 15 percent of all school-age children have no health insurance coverage whatsoever; and

WHEREAS, despite the fact that the leading threats to children's health involve behavioral choices and, therefore, may be prevented through education, intervention and the timely provision of direct services, the National School Boards Association estimates that as few as 5 percent of this nation's schools provide comprehensive school health programs, and the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development concludes that throughout the United States there exist fewer than 330 school-linked or school-based clinics serving less than 1 percent of all adolescents; and

WHEREAS, these threats to the health of children adversely affect their attendance at school, their readiness to learn and their capacity to grow and thrive and become healthy, productive and contributing adults:

RESOLVED, that the AFT encourage and support federal legislation to expand and fund comprehensive school health programs that provide health education and direct services to promote good health and prevent HIV, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, drug, alcohol and tobacco use, violence, and other life-threatening and risky behaviors; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT support federal legislation to expand and fund school-based and school-linked mental health and counseling services, health screening, immunization programs, parent skill instruction, crisis intervention, child care and health and social support programs; and

RESOLVED, that AFT reaffirm the role of the school nurse in the planning and delivery of any school-based health care and acknowledge that the presence of any additional services at the school site should not be interpreted to diminish or eliminate the role of the nurse within the school or as liaison to other health care providers; and

RESOLVED, that AFT continue to provide leadership in efforts to remove economic barriers to medical access for all children, including the expansion of Medicaid and other federal programs to finance direct services provided in school-based and school-linked clinics, as well as the enactment of universal health coverage for all Americans.