Nutrition Policy Institute's Gail Woodward-Lopez co-authored a commentary in JAMA Pediatrics on the importance of body mass index assessment (BMI) and surveillance in schools. The commentary was written in collaboration with Anisha Patel of the Stanford Medicine Department of Pediatrics and Emma Sanchez-Canaugh of the San Francisco State University Department of Public Health. Woodward-Lopez and co-authors highlight the benefits of and need to sustain BMI screening and related school-based surveillance systems despite recent research suggesting that BMI screening and reporting in schools was not associated with reductions in student BMI. They suggest that these systems are important to maintain in order to evaluate policy and program effectiveness at the school and state level, monitor population trends and disparities, and identify places and populations requiring targeted obesity interventions. The commentary was published online on February 22, 2021.