By Journalist Kennedy Thomason (OSU)
Recess bells across Oklahoma could take longer to ring.
Rep. Gregory (SWOSU) presented the “Longer Recess” act, SWOSU-502, to the House on Sunday morning. If signed into law, the bill would increase the recess time requirement from one hour to 150 minutes each week for kindergarten through fifth grade students.
“This may sound like a lot, but if divided between the five days in a normal school week, the current statute only requires a minimum of 12 minutes a day,” Gregory said.
Under the current statute, it does not meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation.
Children, from ages six to 17 years old, should be active for at least one hour every day, according to the CDC.
“If we move the minimum up to 150 minutes per week, this will divide to 30 minutes per day,” Gregory said. “This will not affect the school day, as most schools already have blocked out 30 minutes to an hour of physical education within the school day.”
Although the bill would primarily require the extra time to go to physical activities, it also allows it to go toward wellness and nutrition education.
When children are active, they should spend most of the minimum recommended hour participating in “moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic,” according to the Harvard T.H. Chan Public School of Health.
Despite this, Gregory was not in favor of a friendly amendment to strike “classroom activities” from the list of acceptable items time can be allotted to.
One friendly amendment was submitted, changing the date the bill would go into effect from 90 days to the beginning of the next school year.
In a vote of unanimous consent, the bill will head to the Senate.
Gregory said now, more than ever, schools should keep their students active.
“As technology has increased in school, we should also continue to emphasize the importance of movement and exercise and not allow schools to backslide in physical education,” Gregory said.