IDEA Yukon Academy among America’s Healthiest Schools for 2024

America’s Healthiest Schools is an annual recognition program that celebrates schools promoting health and well-being. This year, 879 schools across the nation were recognized for implementing practices that support the health of their staff, students and families.

“At IDEA, our mission is to support students’ academic success while addressing their physical and mental health needs,” said Eva Rodriguez, vice president of Student Health and Wellness for IDEA. “We achieve this by offering health services, nutritious meals, opportunities for physical activity and education on making healthy life choices.”

One of the programs that IDEA has implemented to promote health and wellness includes the Healthy Kids Here program.

“We are celebrating 10 years of the Healthy Kids Here program,” said Amanda Krippel, the director of Healthy Kids Here. “We aim to gain IDEA as one of the healthiest school districts in America.”

According to Krippel, Healthy Kids Here is a multi-departmental initiative at IDEA Public Schools. Healthy Kids Here collaborates with the Child Nutrition Program, the physical education department and with Health Services.

“When we partner with our Child Nutrition Program, we actually put out a free cookbook for our IDEA families,” Kripple said. “We gather recipes from our IDEA staff and families then we test them out and get those out to our families during engagement events on campus.”

Kripple added that the Child Nutrition Program provides free, healthy breakfast and lunch to every student on campus. They also encourage students to participate in extra-curricular activities.

“We partner with our physical education department to ensure that each campus has recess and that students are going out and being physically active,” Kripple said. “Our staff also tries to promote healthy habits, like drinking water throughout the day.”

IDEA Public Schools also promotes health and wellness by providing information to families about different topics such as hand washing and flu season at family engagement events. For staff members, they often hold different events such as a healthy food challenge.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation recognizes schools if they have excelled in one or more of the nine key areas outlined in their Thriving Schools Integrated Assessment.

“IDEA Yukon received seven awards out of the nine guidelines,” Kripple said. “The application is not easy, it’s very intense, so the fact that they won seven out of nine is outstanding.”

“IDEA Yukon received seven awards out of the nine guidelines,” Kripple said. “The application is not easy, it’s very intense, so the fact that they won seven out of nine is outstanding.”