Obesity usually begins in childhood. Obese children have an 80-percent chance of staying obese their entire lives. The average lifetime cost of obesity is over half a million dollars for an obese child who remains obese throughout adulthood. In Texas, the numbers are staggering.  Forty-percent of children are either overweight or obese.    

Research undeniably shows that there is a direct correlation between physical fitness and academic achievement.  Further, fit students have fewer problems with absenteeism and behavior problems.    

Support Healthy Texas Children by Voting NO on Amendments that Repeal School-based Fitness Measurements and Coordinated School Health Education  

AS FILED, HB 400 addresses the concerns received from local school officials who’ve complained about the complexity of administering the Fitnessgram assessment to students during the school day.  HB 400 limits the fitness measurement to only students in PE classes.  

Coordinated school health (CSH) is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control as a strategy for improving students' health and learning in our nation’s schools.  CSH is a systemic approach of advancing student academic performance by promoting, practicing and coordinating school health education and services for the benefit and well-being of students. 

Schools have direct contact with more than 95 percent of our state’s young people aged 5–17 years, for about 6 hours a day, and for up to 13 critical years of their social, psychological, physical, and intellectual development. Therefore, after the family, schools are the primary institution supporting the development of young people in Texas.

In 2009 school health was removed as a requirement for high school graduation and the total PE time required was decreased.  Some districts don’t promote recess and others use the unstructured play time as punishment for students’ behavior or for academic remediation Individually, these policies may have little impact but in tandem with proposed budget cuts, they will have a detrimental effect on the health status of Texas school children.  We can’t expect academic achievement from children when we don’t provide them the appropriate access to physical activity and education necessary to keep them active and fit.  

Please Stand and Preserve the Health of Texas’ Future: Our Children  

Our Mission: To develop and promote policies that prevent and reduce obesity in Texas.  

Our Guiding Principles:  

• Encourage collaboration among all interested parties in reducing obesity
• Inform policy makers about the consequences of the disease
• Promote evidence-based strategies at multiple levels: individual, family, community and policy levels
• Serve as a resource for people interested in addressing obesity prevention and treatment  

Who We Are:

For More Information: www.PartnershipForAHealthyTexas.org

82nd Texas Legislature Testimonies