Recess Legislation Passed in Arkansas!
In Arkansas, a house representative introduced a bill hoping to increase the amount of playtime for elementary aged students.
In 2019, Representative Jana Della Rosa introduced House Bill 1409 to “Allow For Extended Learning Opportunities Through Unstructured Social Time; To Require A Certain Amount Of Time For Recess; And To Consider Supervision During Unstructured Social Time As Instructional”. This ensures that all elementary school aged students will receive at least forty minutes of recess every day.
The bill was passed in March 2019. The Governor of Arkansas signed the legislation on April 1, 2019.
The Parents for Active Learning addressed the issue with the House and Senate Education Committees in November 2018. The group noted that most elementary students in public schools only get about 18 minutes of recess a day. Yet we know from the plethora of research that 40 minutes a day for children is beneficial for their overall health and their ability to learn.
Some of The Research Supporting the importance of Recess
The CDC published a report in 2017, “Strategies for Recess in School”. In 2010, the CDC published this report, “The Association of School-based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, on Academic Performance”. The American Academy of Pediatrics published a report in 2013, “The Crucial Role of Recess in School”. The NIH published a report in 2013, “Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School”.
Recess Legislation and Demanding the Right to Play in other states
Arkansas isn’t the only one who recently passed similar legislation. Illinois recently did the same and Denisha talks about their efforts. We’ve been talking about the importance of protecting childhood by demanding their right to play for quite some time.
If you know of legislation in your State, whether it’s legislation that is harmful or moves the needle in the right way, please let us know by submitting the details to info@dey.org.
We know that during this time of COVID, there are concerns about how to allow children to play outside, during recess, safely. Here are some ideas for socially distanced recess in the time of COVID.