LHD Activity Checklist (LAC)
- Do I need to complete an LHD Activity Checklist (LAC)?
- When should the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) be completed?
- Who completes the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC)?
- How does the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) differ from the main questionnaire?
- How does the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) differ from reporting that we do in PEARS?
Do I need to complete an LHD Activity Checklist (LAC)?
Each site that has a completed SLAQ (i.e., all the sites with PSE interventions and a SLAQ available) and each school district that has a completed OAQ (i.e., all school districts with PSE interventions and an OAQ available) should also have a completed LHD Activity Checklist (also referred to as a LAC) to document the LHD’s CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) efforts. If a SLAQ was completed earlier in the year, but PSE work was unable to progress due to unforeseen circumstances, you can still submit a LAC and explain what happened in one of the text fields. LACs can be found on the SLAQ Questionnaires webpage, organized by setting.
When should the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) be completed?
Each site/organization that completes a SLAQ/OAQ should have a matching LHD Activity Checklist submitted by the end of the school or program year, once all CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) related activities are completed for that site. The LHD Activity Checklist can be completed or updated throughout the year using the word document version, with the final submitted in Survey123. Word document versions of the LHD Activity Checklists are located on the SLAQ Questionnaires webpage, organized by setting.
Check out our Evaluation Activity Timeline resource for more guidance.
Who completes the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC)?
The LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) should be completed by the Local Health Department (LHD) or CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) implementation staff who are the most knowledgeable about what CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) work has been carried out at each site/organization during the fiscal year. The LAC should be completed with information from those implementing the CFHL program. Consultation with a site is not needed to complete the LAC.
How does the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) differ from the main questionnaire?
The LHD Activity Checklist is a way for you (the Local Health Department) to report where your CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) efforts were focused at the site (or the organization-level) each year, whereas the SLAQ (or OAQ) itself is a tool to assess where each site stands with regards to nutrition and physical activity related best practices. The current status of best practice implementation may or may not be related CFHL work, but can guide where to focus your efforts for the year; these efforts would then be captured at the end of the year on the LAC.
For example, let's say that an LHD worked with an ECE site to conduct a SLAQ at the beginning of the year and found that SLAQ scores related to water access could be improved. They decide that for this year, they will focus on improving water access indoors and add water access to the ECE site policy. They start the process by getting bids for implementing a water station, holding meetings with staff to brainstorm ways to improve access to water in the classroom, and drafting language for inclusion in their wellness policy. At the end of the year, some progress has been made, but the plan is still in-progress (e.g., the policy is under review but not effective yet, students all have refillable water bottles but the water station hasn’t been installed).
In this scenario, to complete the year-end ECE LHD Activity Checklist, this LHD would mark the "practice" and "policy" boxes for “Drinking water inside is easily visible and self-serve at all times.” Even though the changes are still in-progress, marking both boxes shows us that efforts were made towards improving the best practice of making sure water inside is visible and available at all times and these efforts include both practice and policy approaches. If those are the only areas the LHD worked on with this site this year, the LHD would not need to mark anything else.
How does the LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) differ from reporting that we do in PEARS?
The LHD Activity Checklist (LAC) gives more detail on the CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) efforts undertaken by the LHD than what is available in PEARS. It also allows you to report on efforts in progress whereas PEARS only asks about changes that have been adopted.
For example, if an LHD is working on improving written childcare wellness policy to include language on water access inside the childcare facility, the LHD would mark the policy column for “Drinking water inside is easily visible and self-serve at all times” on the ECE version of the LHD Activity Checklist, whether making the change to the policy is still in progress or has already happened. In contrast, the corresponding "change" in the PEARS PSE module is "Established or improved food/beverage, physical activity and/or wellness-related policies" which is more general and should only be marked once the change to the policy is adopted.