[Source: AOTA.org]

National School Backpack Awareness Day is an annual event held on the third Wednesday of every September. Across the country, backpack events educate parents, students, educators and school administrators, and communities about the serious health effects that backpacks that are too heavy or worn improperly have on children. Backpack Day is also a time to promote the full range of occupational therapy benefits and services

• More than 79 million students in the United States carry school backpacks.
• More than 23,000 backpack-related injuries were treated at hospital emergency rooms, doctor’s offices, and clinics in 2007.
• It is recommended that a loaded backpack should never weight more than 15% of the student’s total body weight (for a student weighing 100 pounds, this means that the backpack should weight no more than 15 pounds)
  

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Read the AOTA K-12 Backpack Tip Sheet

Backpack Strategies for Parents and Students