Massachusetts Public Schools Students Get Fat Report Cards
Consider it a big step in the fight against childhood obesity or institutionalized picking-on-the-fat-kid, but public school students in Massachusetts will start getting Body Mass Index measurements sent home to their parents.
The report cards will be phased into schools during the next eighteen months:
The Public Health Council voted unanimously Wednesday to calculate student heights and weights, which are already measured annually, into a Body Mass Index measuring their overall proportions.
The results will be sent home to parents for students in first, fourth, seventh and 10th grades in a package explaining what they mean and how parents can best combat obesity.
Department of Public Health Medical Director Lauren Smith says Massachusetts will join Arkansas in notifying parents about a child’s Body Mass Index. Eighteen other states require a BMI calculation.
Another way to slim down kids is taking soda and sugary drinks out of schools, if kids switch to water instead of soft drinks they’d cut 235 calories out of their day.
Via Fox News.
