Since 1987 NASBE has partnered with the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide guidance and assistance to state and local education policymakers and practitioners. Our goal is to encourage safe, healthy, and nurturing school environments for all of the nation's children and youth.

NASBE's Center for Safe and Healthy Schools currently has two cooperative agreements with CDC-DASH:

• The Increasing Healthy Eating project is focused on providing research-based capacity-building assistance and information to education leaders on helping schools establish, maintain, and evaluate healthy school nutrition environments and collaborate with parents, community, and public health partners on increasing healthy eating at school.
• The project to Strengthen Leadership and Governance for HIV Prevention is focused on providing research-based capacity-building assistance to DASH-funded state or local education agencies that have expressed a commitment to pursue HIV-related education policy and program improvement initiatives.

***

In 2007 NASBE was awarded a two-year grant under the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Leadership for Healthy Communities national program to help reverse the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. The NASBE Obesity Prevention Project assists state boards of education and other state policymakers in their efforts to create healthier communities to reduce rates of childhood obesity, especially among students at high risk for obesity