What is CATCH?

Coordinated School Health is a process which brings a school community together to teach children healthy life style behaviors. Effective school programs reinforce positive healthy behaviors in a school setting and makes clear that good health and learning go hand in hand.

• CATCH stands for Coordinated Approach To Child Health (formerly known as the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health).
• It is a Coordinated School Health Program designed to prevent sedentary behavior, poor dietary choices, and tobacco use through changes at the elementary school level. CATCH sought to determine if multi-component health promotion efforts targeting both children's behaviors and the school environment, including classroom curricula, food service modifications, physical education changes, and family reinforcement, would reduce chronic disease risk factors.
• CATCH demonstrated that behaviors such as eating food high in fat and physical activity can be changed. CATCH was the largest school-based health promotion study ever done in the United States.
• CATCH has been approved by the Texas Education Agency as a program schools may use to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 19 (now known as Senate bill 1357).
• CATCH was cited in the Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity as a "Program that Works."
• The Texas State Board of Education approved the CATCH materials as a diabetes education program that a district may use in their health curriculum.
• CATCH meets the Texas Education Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) guidelines for both Health Education and Physical Education guidelines.

(All information taken from CATCH Program Information Packet, 2003)
If you have any questions about CATCH, please contact one of our campus nurses.

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