The Department of Education in West Virginia is a highly active body constantly striving to improve conditions for students and teachers. There are many goals that the Department of Education is simultaneously pursuing, one of which is the improvement of health and wellness for students and staff.
The West Virginia Board of Education developed a position statement on student wellness, which they believe should take a very high priority for achieving excellence. The focus is on research-based practices which have shown success in achieving a high level of health wherever those standards have been implemented.
The board uses the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 as its guideline for achieving wellness among students. This bill was enacted by Congress so that schools would provide meals to students with federal funds, assuring that students, no matter what their economic situation would be provided two healthy meals each day. The meals are nutritious, with an emphasis on avoiding highly caloric foods to help reduce the number of children in the US with obesity.