By Emily Zuccaro, with Kathryn Whitmore

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development launched an initiative in 2007 known as Whole Child. The program is
meant to advocate for comprehensive strategies for learning and development that
ensures each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Whole
Child believes that each child needs personalized support, safe environments,
good health, and challenging learning opportunities. A Whole Child Snapshot is a
chart that compares each state to the national average in each category and has
targeted and innovative improvements as well. In Kentucky, most of the averages
are within 2 or 3% above or below the national average in areas such as
childhood obesity, bullying, kids who care about doing well in school, education
attainment and high school graduation rates. Some recommendations include
connecting free and low-cost physical and mental health services to families
that need them, extracurricular and extended day learning opportunities, support
for parent education and family literacy programs, and relevant and challenging
coursework such as advanced placement classes.