First time users can expect to spend approximately 45 minutes scoring a wellness policy; however, users who score more than one policy and become familiar with scoring instructions typically complete the survey in approximately 30 minutes.

The assessment "times out" after leaving it inactive for one hour; however, your work will not be lost. If your assessment has timed out, you will need to sign in again.

Yes! When you sign in to return to an existing survey, you will be taken to the page where you left off.

First, make sure that you have selected a response for ALL of the items on the WellSAT Policy and Practice assessments. To verify this, access the assessments and make sure all of the subscales at the top of the screen have a green checkmark. If the "Triennial" button still does not appear after you complete the WellSAT Practice, the assessment was not marked as a Triennial Assessment when it was created. To fix this, click the three dots next to the Scorecard buttons on your Dashboard and select "Edit Details". On the popup that appears, make sure the checkbox next to the question about Triennial Assessments is selected and input the required information. Once finished, select the red "Update" button at the bottom of the popup. You should now be able to complete Step 3 of the Triennial Assessment process.

Once you have completed an assessment, you will be able to view your scorecard and download it as a PDF. Click on the buttons in the "Scorecard" column of your Dashboard to view your scorecard(s). Then, click on the red "PDF" button next to the words "Your District's Socrecard" to generate a shareable PDF.

You will need to create a new assessment for each school you will be assessing. Put the name of the school in the name of your assessment so that you can easily identify it from your Dashboard. If you have already scored the district’s policy, you can copy the WellSAT Policy scores to your school assessment by selecting the appropriate assessment from the “Select Policy to Copy From” dropdown menu when you create the new assessment. Repeat this process for each school whose practices you are assessing.

Several items address policies around "competitive foods." Competitive foods are foods sold outside of USDA school meals. This includes food and beverages sold a la carte in the cafeteria, from vending machines or school stores and any other sources on school premises. Competitive foods are often referred to as "Smart Snacks in Schools"

As of school year 2014-15, all foods and beverages sold outside of school meal programs during the school day are required to meet the USDA Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards. More information on Smart Snacks can be found here: https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/tools-schools-focusing-smart-snacks

At times, an entire policy may be listed as a series of goals. In this case, each item would be coded only as "recommended/suggested," and not "required," because they are simply goals.

Example 1: The following would be coded as a 1.

The wellness goals of [district name] are as follows:

• to provide nutrition education to all students;
• to offer physical activity breaks during the school day; and
• to participate in the National School Lunch Program and ensure meals meet USDA nutrition standards.

If instead, a policy provides an overarching goal with additional action steps that must be followed, each action step will be coded as it is written.

Example 2: The following would be coded as a 2.

The wellness goal of [district name] is to provide nutrition education that is fully integrated into the curriculum. We will:

• provide a comprehensive nutrition education curriculum at all grade levels;
• include nutrition education as part of math, reading, and other subject areas; and
• train teachers to incorporate nutrition education into other lesson plans.

For your convenience, the Rudd Center's Model Local School Wellness Policy is available as an editable Word document and a PDF. It contains strong language for each of the 62 policy topics assessed by the WellSAT.

You can create a pdf of any of your scorecards from your dashboard by clicking on the link, and then clicking on the "pdf" icon at the top of the page showing your scorecard. You can then download and save the pdf on your computer.

The last step of the Triennial Assessment is to make the assessment public, so most districts post their assessment on their district website. If you state child nutrition office is tracking the Triennial Assessments in your state, you can email them the pdf. Note: Your scores do not get automatically sent to any state offices.

We have renamed WellSAT 3.0 to WellSAT Policy and WellSAT-I to WellSAT Practice. Some subscales have been renamed and the questions have been renumbered in response to user requests to separate the federal requirements and our interest in reflecting the CDC's WSCC Model. You can still access your WellSAT 3.0 assessments from your Dashboard by clicking "Copy Assessment."

Unfortunately, WellSAT 2.0 has been retired and can no longer be accessed. If you used the WellSAT 3.0 tool, all of your data are still accessible from this website. On your Dashboard, click on the "Copy v3 Policy" button. Then, select the policy that you want to copy from the dropdown menu.

The Centers for Disease Control has created an online self-assessment and planning tool called the School Health Index. This tool can be found on the CDC website. The SHI reflects the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model, so it includes components that go beyond the scope of this version of the WellSAT. The CDC also offers the Wellness Policy Action Tool (WPAT) which can compare specific WellSAT and SHI responses.