Student Weight Status Data

Student Weight Status Category Reporting System (SWSCRS) - Information for Schools Required to Submit Data

The 2025-2026 SWSCRS/BMI & Health Conditions Reporting Surveys is open on the Health Commerce System under the Health Electronic Response Data System (HERDS) application. The BMI & Health Conditions Reporting Surveys for the School District (and NOT the individual School Building) should be entered only by the person in the School District Nurse role on the Health Commerce System.

Data submission for the 2025-2026 SWSCRS/BMI & Health Conditions survey is due Friday January 30, 2026.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Use data from last school year's (2024-2025) student health exam form when reporting data.

2025-2026 BMI/Student Weight Status Category Reporting Training Registration and Schedule

For questions about the SWSCRS/BMI & Health Conditions Reporting Survey contact Sherry Brown at the Bureau of Chronic Disease Evaluation & Research, New York State Department of Health. E email: schoolbmi@health.ny.gov or phone 518-473-7817.

Information for the 2025-2026 SWSCRS/BMI & Health Conditions reporting survey is available below:

Public Schools Selected To Complete The Survey For The 2025-2026 School Year
Identifies which public schools were selected to report Weight Status Category information for the current school year. 50% of all public schools are surveyed each year.
BOCES, Charter, Private, and 4201 designated schools are not required to report WSC data.

How To Assign Reporter Roles and Report Data
Provides information on how to assign roles and how the person assigned to the role of School District Nurse or Data Reporter can enter and submit data for their school district. Provides Health Commerce System (HCS) Portal access link to submit data.

How to Request/Create Health Commerce System Accounts, Reset Password or User ID, & Account Management Guide
Provides online User Account Guide to the Health Commerce System with pictorial directions to obtaining a user account online. Also includes online password and user ID reset guides.

Parent and Health Care Provider Notification Resources
Provides information for school districts on how to obtain passive parent notification and sample follow-up letters to health care providers who omitted WSC or health conditions information on a student's health exam.

School Building and District Tally Sheets
Provides school tally sheets for use by the building level and district tally sheets for the person assigned at the district level to enter onto the Health Commerce System.

Pre-K and K Reporting
This resource explains how to record SWSC on Pre-K and Kindergarten students.

FAQ's Regarding Student Weight Status Category Reporting
Provides an overview of the amendments to NYS Education Law in 2007 and a summary of frequently asked questions.

Student Weight Status Category Reporting Survey Data

Student Weight Status Category Reporting Survey Results

The Student Weight Status Category Reporting System (SWSCR) collects weight status category data (underweight, healthy weight, overweight or obese, based on BMI-for-age percentile) on children and adolescents attending public school in New York State, outside New York City.

Beginning in 2010, all data reported through the Student Weight Status Category Reporting System have been released on Health Data New York. The headings below describe different ways the data from SWSCR can be accessed and manipulated through Health Data NY. Prior to 2010, data from SWSCR were released through printable report and continue to be incorporated into reports released to the public. These reports are accessible through web-links posted on this page.

Student Weight Data Explorer

The Student Weight Data Explorer provides dashboards that allow a user to view data on student overweight and obesity collected through the Student Weight Status Category Reporting (SWSCR). Use the data explorer to find data for a school district; compare data from school districts and counties; or examine statewide, regional, and county trends.

Health Data New York

The Health Data NY site is an open data site maintained by the New York State Department of Health devoted to providing access to health data. The site allow health care providers, researchers, legislators, advocates, academics, and the general public to analyze and download valuable health data in a variety of formats; review comprehensive metadata; create visualizations of the data; embed data and visualizations into their respective web sites with automatic refreshes from health.data.ny.gov; utilize Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to build mobile applications; and share data and visualizations through popular social media tools like Twitter and Facebook.

  • Student Weight Status Category Reporting Results: Beginning 2019
    The Student Weight Status Category Reporting System (SWSCR) collects weight status category data (underweight, healthy weight, overweight or obese, based on BMI-for-age percentile). The dataset includes separate estimates of the percent of students overweight, obese and overweight or obese for all reportable grades within the county and/or region and by grade groups (elementary and middle/high). The rates of overweight and obesity reported are percentages based on counts of students in selected grades (Pre-K, K, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11) reported to the NYSDOH. District, county, regional and statewide estimates are provided biennially. Data can be filtered by a variety of variables within the dataset and exported into various formats for additional analyses. Half of the public schools in New York State, exclusive of New York City, are required to report Student Weight Status data each year. It takes two years to collect a full cycle of data for all eligible school districts in the state. Results for the 2019-2020 schoolyear and thereafter cannot be compared with previous schoolyears as they are not trendable due to a method change in collecting data for different grade levels beginning in 2019.
  • Student Weight Status Category Reporting Results: 2010-2019
    The Student Weight Status Category Reporting System (SWSCR) collects weight status category data (underweight, healthy weight, overweight or obese, based on BMI-for-age percentile). The dataset includes separate estimates of the percent of students overweight, obese and overweight or obese for all reportable grades within the county and/or region and by grade groups (elementary and middle/high). The rates of overweight and obesity reported are percentages based on counts of students in selected grades (Pre-K, K, 2, 4, 7, 10) reported to the NYSDOH. District, county, regional and statewide estimates are provided biennially. Data can be filtered by a variety of variables within the dataset and exported into various formats for additional analyses. Half of the public schools in New York State, exclusive of New York City, are required to report Student Weight Status data each year. It takes two years to collect a full cycle of data for all eligible school districts in the state.
  • 2008-10 County-Level Student Weight Data File on Health Data NY
    This dataset provides county-level estimates of overweight and obesity for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years by grade level for NYS, exclusive of NYC. A data set overview, data dictionary, research questions and benefits of using the data are also included.

Chronic Disease Prevention: Information for Action Reports

Information for action (IFA) reports are brief, one-page reports summarizing information and data about a health indicator that has implications for public health action. IFA reports specific for student weight related topics are listed below:

Data and Reports Prior to 2010

The "Student Weight Status Category Reporting Survey Results: County-Level Report, 2008-2010" summarizes data reported from schools to the NYSDOH during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years. Data from schools within a county were weighted by enrollment and aggregated to produce estimates of the prevalence of overweight, obesity, healthy weight and underweight among students. Estimates are provided for all reportable grades combined within the county and by grade groups (elementary, middle/high school) and grade (second, fourth, seventh, tenth). Information about the number of schools and school districts contributing data to the county-estimates, the enrollment in those schools and the completeness of reporting (percent of enrolled students for whom weight status data were reported) are also provided.

For additional information on the SWSCR, including districts selected to report, survey tools and data reporting procedures, please visit the New York Statewide School Health Services Center website at: https://www.schoolhealthny.com/Page/198