Health Councils
CATCH
The Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Program exists for the primary purpose of creating healthy children and healthy school environments. The CATCH Texas staff will achieve this goal by implementing effective coordinated school health programming (CSHP), using CATCH, in every school in Texas. CATCH is a coordinated school health program which builds an alliance of parents, teachers, child nutrition personnel, school staff, and community partners to teach children and their families how to be healthy for a lifetime. The four CATCH components - Go For Health Classroom Curriculum, CATCH Physical Education , Eat Smart School Nutrition Guide, and family Home Team activities - reinforce positive healthy behaviors throughout a child's day and make it clear that good health and learning go hand in hand.
SHAC
A school health council, sometimes called a school health advisory council (SHAC), is an advisory group of individuals who represent segments of the community. The group acts collectively to provide advice to the school system on aspects of the school health program. Generally, the members of a SHAC are specifically appointed by the school system. Most often SHAC advise an entire school system (district), but a SHAC may also be useful for an individual school wanting its own advisory council. School systems often use advisory councils to provide advice to them on a variety of topics, such as exceptional children or dropout prevention.
It is important to emphasize that such councils are formed to provide advice. These groups do not become part of the administrative structure of the schools. Nor do they have any legal responsibilities within the school system. BRISD (SHAC) meets 4 times a school year or more as needed.
