Better Health, Better Learning Report - July 2017 SCORE Better Health Better Learning Report_July 20 | Page 4
Tennessee Context
According to the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Office of Coordinated
School Health, during the 2015-16 school year, 226,378 students in Tennessee public
schools had a chronic illness or disability diagnosis. This number represents 23 percent
of all Tennessee public school students statewide. The most common diagnoses of those
students included asthma (30 percent), ADHD/ADD (24 percent), and severe allergies
(15 percent). 4 Between the 2004-05 and 2014-15 school years, chronic illness
diagnoses increased 85 percent, including a 78 percent increase in asthma and 52
percent increase in diabetes diagnoses. 5 Tennessee students trail their peers nationally
across a wide variety of health outcomes and behaviors (Figure 1). Youth health data
from Tennessee show the health-related challenges many students must overcome to
achieve success in school and life beyond graduation.
FIGURE 1
HEALTH OUTCOMES AND
BEHAVIORS IN TENNESSEE 6
TENNESSEE US AVERAGE
High School Students Who Eat Vegetables
Three Or More Times Per Day 9.7% 14.8%
Teen Birthrate 33% 24%
Youth Smoking 11.5% 10.8%
Youth Obesity 18.6% 13.9%
Children With One Or More Emotional,
Behavioral, Or Developmental Conditions 21% 17%
Low-Birthweight Babies 9.1% 8%
Children With Asthma 12% 9%
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015 and Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2017.
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