{"doi":"10.1111/josh.13535","title":"The Continued Implementation and Perceived Impact of an Elementary School Wellness Policy After Extended <scp>COVID</scp>‐19‐Related School Closures*","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Schools play a key role in children's health. Following COVID-19, programs that promote students' well-being are needed more than ever. This study examines the continuation of a wellness initiative in Anchorage, Alaska, in the 2021-2022 school year. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with n = 25 principals and cafeteria managers. Content analyses of the qualitative data were conducted using an immersion/crystallization approach. Codes were grouped to create themes contained under larger domains. RESULTS: All schools continued aspects of the wellness initiative following COVID-19. Principals and cafeteria managers indicated: recess, movement opportunities, and longer lunch periods are important for mental health, socialization, and relationship building; COVID-19 exacerbated previous challenges with staffing shortages; additional pressure for the academic time made scheduling the wellness initiative challenging; longer lunch periods give younger students time to eat but cause poor behavior in older students which were alleviated through supportive strategies; and 30-minute recess and movement breaks offer more time to move, reset, and focus on schoolwork. IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY: The study underscores the importance of school administrators integrating wellness initiatives into their policies, with buy-in from school and district leadership. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the need for and importance of school wellness initiatives following COVID-19 extended school closures.","journal":"Journal of School Health","year":2024,"id":474891,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9582,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":791773,"name":"Katie Cueva","orcid":"0000-0002-8013-9680","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":326086,"name":"Christina D. Economos","orcid":"0000-0002-0410-5294","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":453443,"name":"Kenneth Chui","orcid":"0000-0002-8063-8631","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1311793,"name":"Brittany Rodvik","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":368695,"name":"Juliana F.W. Cohen","orcid":"0000-0002-3145-6014","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1105652,"name":"Deborah A. Olarte","orcid":"0000-0003-0133-4793","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":13,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:06:13.042906Z","pmid":"39726189","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}