Dallas ISD

Dallas ISD is the 2nd largest school district in Texas and the 15th largest in the country. Dallas ISD began implementing CATCH in 2009 after a thorough review of best practices around the country, and today the district uses CATCH in all 201 elementary-middle schools, serving 122,000 schoolchildren.

An intensive CATCH implementation was undertaken in middle schools during the 2011-12 school year which included recruitment of CATCH champions at each campus; family fun nights; t-shirts, posters and other school support; and social media outreach. The impact of this implementation included significant increases in provision of classroom activity breaks, teacher social support for healthy behaviors, and percentage of teachers who teach CATCH lessons.

As a result of these programs, student health behavior outcomes included a significant increase in student fruit consumption and student vigorous physical activity during PE class in classes taught by teachers trained in CATCH PE.

“The language of CATCH is so easy,” says DISD Coordinated School Health Specialist Karen Burnell. “Our schools in particular have latched on to MVP language. We created own logo for MVP. We also made checklists for teachers to ensure they’re incorporating all of the elements of coordinated school health. The coordination kits make it seamless. Everyone has a resource, everyone has something to do every 6 weeks.”

Dallas ISD’s dedication Coordinated School Health is demonstrated through their publication of a health newsletter. CATCH endorses community specific newsletters as a way to keep parents and caregivers involved in their child health.

Click here for a sample Dallas ISD Community Newsletter

Karen Burnell recorded a Webinar for CATCH in 2012 on strategies for implementing and sustaining CATCH. Learn from Dallas ISD’s success here!

Learn more about Dallas ISD’s dedication to CATCH on their website.