Mandatory recess bill up for roll-call vote in Ariz. House
PHOENIX — Arizona elementary school students are a step closer to getting time each day to have free reign on the playground, but one Yuma school district leader thinks the state should not be setting mandates for schools.
Yuma District One Superintendent Jamie Sheldahl said, “We strongly believe that children benefit from physical activity during the school day.”
District One is Yuma’s largest elementary school district with 12 elementary schools. The district has about 8,090 students on its average daily membership (ADM), according to data from the Arizona Department of Education.
HB 2082, which would only affect kindergarteners through fifth-graders, advanced without dissent Monday as the state House gave it preliminary approval, according to Capitol Media Services. The measure would require that students be given at least 50 minutes of “unstructured recess.’’ HB 2082 needs a final rollcall vote before going to the Senate.
Crane School District Associate Superintendent Laurie Doering said the district believes in the importance of physical activity.
“We believe activity and movement are very important for children and research shows the impact this has on the brain,” she said. “In fact, in Crane, we have worked hard the past few years to embed movement breaks and structures throughout the day.”
Crane Schools, which has nine elementary schools and an enrollment of about 5,950, took a look at its well-
ness policy last school year (2015-2016), and Doering and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Michael Hoffman gave a report on how to get kids more physical activity during the school day to the board last August, according to minutes from that meeting.
Currently, each elementary school has a lunch recess as well as an afternoon recess, Doering said.
Rep. Jesus Rubalcava, DGila Bend, who has taught hyperactive students, is pushing the measure based on his belief that giving students a break during the day will help them focus better when they come back to class. Yuma Rep.
Charlene Fernandez is also listed as a co-sponsor of the bill.
For Rep. Pamela Powers Hanley, D-Tucson, the issue comes down to physical health. “Back in December I was shopping for clothes for my granddaughter,’’ she told colleagues. “It was so sad to see plus sizes in the little girls’ department,’’ Powers Hanley continued. “We need to get our children up and moving.’’
The measure could still run into trouble over the issue of a state mandate. Rep. David Stringer, R-Prescott, said if the idea of recess is so great, schools would be doing it already. And he questioned whether it’s a
good idea for the state to be dictating the policy.
Rep. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, said he’s not disturbed by the mandate, seeing it as an antidote to a host of other directives about what schools need to teach.
“This bill tries to compensate for us telling them to teach to the test and do this and do that,’’ he said. “So if we’re going to tell them what to do, let’s do it in a balanced way.’’
However, Sheldahl said those matters are best left to local districts.
“Regular activity helps students focus in the classroom, and recess helps students develop social skills such as cooperation and
conflict resolution,” Sheldahl said. “However, like many valid and valuable educational practices, recess should be a matter of local control. Our teachers and principals are effective at ensuring appropriate levels of activity for students during the school day.”
Rubalcava, however, said sometimes it’s necessary for lawmakers to intercede.
“I want them to recognize that recess is just as important as reading and math and writing,’’ he said.
“Until we have it mandated, it will never take that precedence,’’ Rubalcava continued. “Therefore,
there are school districts that won’t take the option of offering the recess.’’
Lawmakers did tinker with the measure a bit before the vote. They specifically added a definition of “unstructured recess’’ to mean a period during which adults do not define the activities or social interaction of students “except for setting reasonable health and safety restrictions.’’ And it permits schools to include the lunch recess in that 50-minute mandate.
The measure also was altered so that schools which offer only half-day kindergarten need offer only 25 minutes of recess daily.