The weighty issue of school backpacks

By Anna Pier for the Sonoma Valley Sun 

As parents get their children ready for a new school year, the backpack question begins to weigh heavy. The threat to children’s back health has been at the center of a perfect storm created by consumerism, an opportunistic publishing industry and the educational trend toward increased homework. Dr. Lawrence Adams, of the local Adams Chiropractic Neurology Group, says he sees “many kids” with back issues from carrying heavy packs.

Once only used by older students, backpacks have become indispensable equipment for every school-age child, starting in kindergarten. While this was happening, textbooks were undergoing a change, becoming larger, with more pages, and more color illustrations and tables, all contributing to greater weight. As the loads got heavier, concerns arose about the effect on a child’s back health.

Parents of younger students may find themselves squared off against marketing ploys when they go to choose a backpack. What first-grader doesn’t want to wear the newest Disney character or a favorite stuffed animal off to school? What parent can resist encouraging a reluctant scholar or softening the pain of going back to school by buying the backpack of their dreams? Older kids enjoy showing off their favorite team or star. Teenagers, becoming more blasé, usually prefer well-worn, even scruffy packs as their signature.

But whatever the choice, the American Association of Chiropractors encourages parents to insist that the pack be appropriately sized to fit the child, not hanging more than four inches below the waistline. And it should have wide, padded, adjustable shoulder straps.

Dr. Adams adds that kids need to use the chest and waist straps, and to tighten shoulder straps to minimize the “cumulative micro-traumas” caused by heavy packs. His first recommendation is to get a rolling backpack for heavy days.

Dr. Adams recommends a maximum weight of 10 percent of a young child’s weight. He reminds us that the spinal growth plates of immature backs are very vulnerable to stress.

The state has weighed in on the problem. In 2004, under legislative mandate, the CA State Board of Education adopted maximum textbook weight standards. The law refers specifically to “health risks to students” from carrying texts in heavy backpacks. The maximum weight per textbook established by the SBE is: three lbs. for Grades K-4; four lbs. for Grades 5-8; and 5 lbs. for high school. CA Department of Education acknowledges that if a child were carrying texts from the four core areas, the total weight would be well over the recommended maximum.

California is a “local control” state in education, so oversight falls to each district. Our district has been pro-active. Sonoma Valley Unified Superintendent Louann Carlomagno told The Sun that for middle and high school students, currently a textbook is issued for them to keep at home, and a set of textbooks is available in each classroom for in-class use. “This reduces the need for older students to carry books back and forth to school,” stated Carlomagno. She added that since the district instituted this plan, complaints about heavy backpacks have gone down significantly.

Dr. Adams says he still sees lots of young patients with heavy backpack stress. He remarks that the plan of leaving books at home doesn’t translate into reality, since students need their own books for afterschool homework programs such as the Boys and Girls Club runs.

Carlomagno also spoke about switching to online textbooks. SVUSD is planning sometime in the future “to issue tablets or laptops to most of our students, starting with sophomores and juniors at SVHS.” Ultimately, this will be a savings to the District, and certainly will help with the heavy backpack issue.

But meantime, parents need to do all they can to protect their children’s backs.