June 24, 2026 The combined academic, health, and relational wellbeing benefits that students can experience when engaged in whole health learning practices are still not yet well known or understood in many precincts where U.S. child and education policy initiatives are put together. A core task of the WholeHealthED mission is to change this as fast as possible. That intention led most recently to the creation of a unique Joint Statement that we released today, extremely grateful to have a number of colleagues add their signatures. The Joint Statement The Statement notes its primary purpose is to followup on our conversations with the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NCCIH, which has been the primary coordinating developer for NIH’s transformational Whole Person Health research and clinical framework. Many research and clinical centers are adopting this framework, which has been deemed a primary factor in the current Administration’s policy goals to reduce the impact of chronic illnesses in the population, including for children. NCCIH leadership has been very supportive of learning more about the benefits of school-based practices, and has stated its intent to focus on children’s health in 2026. The Joint Statement is also intended to continue our efforts to being together the leading exponents and implementers of school-based whole health learning practices — and the important companion initiatives of greening schoolyards, scratch cooking, and fostering relational health and positive childhood experiences. Creating more o these collaborative, shared experiences is also core to our purpose. Later this summer we’ll augment the statement by adding narratives describing students’ experiences and the research supporting each Whole Health Learning practice. See the Joint Statement here. During a June 2026 Webinar entitled “Federal Investments in Whole Child Health and Wellbeing,” NCCIH Acting Director David Shurtleff MD used this slide to indicate their approach to children’s whole health: Some of the language here — whole child, input from education and community, routine workflow, study population of children in school — is very close to a presentation we made to Dr. Shurtleff and colleagues last November.