Triennial Assessment

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Final Rule: Local School Wellness Policy Implementation Under the HHFKA of 2010 requires that each local educational agency (LEA) participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) must complete an assessment of their local school wellness policy (LSWP) at least once every three years. This document assists LEAs with meeting the USDA’s triennial assessment requirements.

Time needed: 1-2 hours, depending on the policy's length and complexity

Staff needed: Chair and members of the district wellness committee (contact the superintendent's office for a list of wellness committee members).

Materials needed:

• District's LSWP and all associated local procedures and regulations
• The WellSAT Policy tool (you will need to register for an account if you do not already have one)

Part A: Complete the WellSAT Policy

Download or print the district’s LSWP and associated local procedures/regulations. If the district works with the Connecticut Association for Boards of Education (CABE), CABE can help identify the district wellness policy. Most districts post their policies on their website. For tips on how to find your policy, review the “How to Find Your Policy” video at wellsat.org/about or at https://youtu.be/GGPKC3T-CSQ.

Use the WellSAT Policy tool to assess the strength and comprehensiveness of your district's policy compared to best practices. The tool can be completed on this website by clicking "Start a new assessment" from your Dashboard. Download or print your scorecard when you are done scoring your policy.

Part B: Check written policy for compliance with federal requirements

Check the first section of your scorecard for the federal requirements (indicated by item numbers beginning with “FR”). Note any items missing from your written policy (i.e., score of “0”).

Time needed: 3-4 hours, depending on the number of people participating

Staff needed:

• District wellness committee members to administer the WellSAT Practice
• Participants: Food service director; district-level official; head of curriculum; health/nutrition education teacher; school principal; physical education teacher; classroom teacher

Materials needed: WellSAT Practice tool (available upon completion of the WellSAT Policy)

Part A: Complete the WellSAT Practice

1. Click “Practice” under the “Edit” column on your WellSAT Dashboard. This link will only appear once all items of the WellSAT Policy are completed.

2. Determine who is best suited to answer each question in your district. Each item includes suggestions for the personnel most likely to be able to answer the question.

3. Start the WellSAT Practice tool. Once your Policy assessment is complete, a link to the Practice assessment will appear under the "Edit Scoring" column. Click this link, then you will be able to access the Practice items.

4. Complete the WellSAT Practice tool by gathering responses from the relevant personnel for each item. Ask all personnel who will need access to register for an account. From the assessment creator’s Dashboard, share the assessment by clicking on the three dots on the right side of the page, then select “Sharing.” Enter the email address of each person with whom you are sharing the assessment, then click the Share button. Repeat until the assessment has been shared with all necessary personnel. When the assessment is complete, click the "Exit" button in the assessment view.

Part B: Check practices for compliance with federal requirements and your policy

1. Check your scorecard for the federal requirements (indicated by the prefix “FR”). Note any practices that are not currently in place (i.e., score of “0”).

2. Look at your WellSAT Policy and WellSAT Practice scores side by side. Highlight any practices that are written into your policy (i.e., score of 1 or 2), but are not in place in practice (i.e., score of 0).

Time needed: 1-2 hours

Staff needed: District wellness committee members

Materials needed: WellSAT Triennial Assessment prompts (available upon completion of the WellSAT Practice)

Writing Narratives to Accompany Your Scoresheets:

1. Click the "Triennial" link under the Edit Scoring column on your WellSAT Dashboard. This will bring you to a page with prompts to help you summarize your assessment.

2. Respond to the prompts provided to create a narrative that describes what your district/school/institution found in your triennial assessment and any plans for improving policies and practices.

There are seven sections to your Triennial Assessment summaries—five required and two optional:

• Introduction (optional)
• Sections for each of the four comparison outcomes shown below
• Comparison with prior assessments
• Conclusion (optional)

Time needed: 15 minutes

Staff needed:

• District wellness committee members
• District website administrator

Materials needed: Triennial Assessment report

Materials to share:

Ask your district’s website administrator to post your triennial assessment report on your district website where families and community members can access it. We recommend posting the entire PDF of your Triennial Assessment Report (available by clicking “Triennial” under the scorecard column on your WellSAT dashboard). This surpasses the minimum requirements for the triennial assessment.

The following are the minimum components required to meet the federal requirements for the triennial assessment. However, please see instructions from your State Department of Education concerning posting requirements in your state.

• Post your completed WellSAT Policy scorecard to document that you have compared your policy to a model policy.
• Post the scores and summary for Strong Policies and Aligned Practices from your Triennial Assessment Report to document your areas of strength.
• Post the scores and summary for Create Practice Implementation Plans from your Triennial Assessment Report to document topics where your district is not compliant with elements of your LSWP and describe how the district will improve compliance.
• If there are federal requirements in the Update Policies section of your Triennial Assessment Report, post these scores and the accompanying summary to describe how the district will update its policy to include all federally required items. You may add plans for additional policy updates if desired.
• If there are federal requirements in the Opportunities for Growth section of your Triennial Assessment Report, post these scores and the accompanying summary to describe how the district will update its policy and practices to include all federally required items. You may add information about the LEA’s future wellness goals here.
• Retain all materials from this assessment. The district’s wellness committee can use these materials when revising the LSWP. Consult your State Department of Education to determine which documents must be made available during the next Administrative Review and how long these records must be kept.