Time to Update Your Local Wellness Policy

SCHOOL LAW ADVISORY
Volume 30, No. 4

Changes to federal and state law and regulations mean that school units must update their local wellness policies. This article discusses those changes and provides some guidance to school units ready to make revisions.

Under federal law, all school units that participate in the federal school nutrition programs are  required to develop a local wellness policy, which is a written document to guide efforts to promote students’ health and well-being. Although the wellness policy requirement has existed since 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized new regulations on the contents of wellness policies in 2016. Under the new standards, wellness policies must include specific measurable goals in a number of areas, nutritional standards on foods and beverages sold in schools, and new requirements regarding public involvement in wellness planning and goal-setting. As a result, on April 10, 2018, the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) repealed the long-standing state-level school nutrition regulations…To continue reading, visit https://schoollaw.com/school-law-advisory. 

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