The Institute of Medicine's report titled Schools and Health: Our Nation's Investment describes coordinated school health programs (CSHP) as:

"An integrated set of planned, sequential, school-affiliated strategies, activities, and services designed to promote the optimal physical, emotional, social, and educational development of students. The program involves and is supportive of families and is determined by the local community, based on community needs, resources, standards, and requirements. It is coordinated by a multidisciplinary team and accountable to the community for program quality and effectiveness."

Building Capacity for Effective Coordination and Support for School Health Programs

In 2006, the American School Health Association received funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Adolescent and School Health (CDC/DASH) for a five-year project called "Building Capacity for Effective Coordination and Support for School Health Programs." The project has two goals.

1 - To determine factors associated with effective coordination of school health programs: across grade levels; disciplines and component areas; and building and agency borders. Once identified, the factors will form the basis for providing capacity building assistance (CBA) to people working at the district and state levels on ways to improve coordination and effectiveness of school health programs at the district level.

2 - To promote information sharing, coordination, and collaboration among professionals, organizations, and agencies regarding effective school health programs. To this end, ASHA hosts the Comprehensive Health Education Network (CHEN) listserv and is collaborating with a number of national organizations and federal agencies to plan a broad-based initiative targeted for the year 2010.