Petitioning the AISD school board to implement a mandatory 30 minute daily recess policy
The Issue
Please sign this petition to indicate your support of creating a new AISD policy that will allow PK - 5th grade students to have a mandatory recess for a minimum of 30 minutes daily.
Out of the 37 elementary schools in AISD, half of the schools get only 10-15 minutes of daily recess. The other half get 20 minutes of daily recess. One school has a 30 minute recess. The number of minutes for recess includes the time spent for the students to quietly line up and then walk to/from the playground, so the allotted minutes are actually less than stated. The state of Texas is going to a minutes vs. days schedule in the fall, so elementary schools in AISD will be adding on extra minutes to the school day in the fall of 2016. Concerned AISD parents would like to see those extra minutes be used for mandatory recess. Currently, there is no AISD policy on recess.
The Dallas ISD Board recently approved a mandatory district-wide recess policy requiring 30 minutes of daily recess for all of their 150 elementary schools.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has published a report finding that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child's development offering enhanced cognitive processing, improved attention and productivity in the classroom, improved social and communication skills, diminished stress, as well as improved physical well-being.
The AAP considers recess as unstructured physical activity and play and views recess as having unique benefits that are separate and distinct from P.E. Many schools offer P.E., “walk and talk” and other movement-based activities within the classroom. While these efforts are notable, they are not substitutes for recess.
The AAP finds that “to maximize cognitive benefits, recess should be scheduled at regular intervals, providing children sufficient time to regain their focus before instruction continues.” In addition, “minimizing or eliminating recess may be counterproductive to academic achievement, as a growing body of evidence suggests that recess promotes not only physical health and social development but also cognitive performance.”
We ask educators and education administrators to view recess as a valuable and essential component of our children’s academic development. We recognize the pressure that all schools face to improve test scores and that creating school schedules is a complex undertaking with many different components to be considered and evaluated. However, research supports that a reduced recess should not be part of the solution to addressing test scores and school schedules.
Likewise, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education outlines in a position statement that “students should not be denied recess so that they can complete class work or as a means of punishment.”
Research also shows that from the perspective of children's health and well-being, recess time should be considered a child's personal time and should not be withheld for academic or punitive reasons. A new AISD recess policy that would be very beneficial to students would include a requirement that students not be barred from recess as a form of discipline for minor infractions, and that administrators not limit access to recess as a form of discipline.
We, the current and future parents of children in AISD elementary schools, hereby support increased recess time. We petition the AISD School Board to implement a recess policy which would require a minimum of 30 minutes of daily mandatory recess.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The Crucial Role of Recess in Schools. Pediatrics Vol. 131 No. 1 January 1, 2013 pp. 183 -188 Available at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183.full
The Issue
Please sign this petition to indicate your support of creating a new AISD policy that will allow PK - 5th grade students to have a mandatory recess for a minimum of 30 minutes daily.
Out of the 37 elementary schools in AISD, half of the schools get only 10-15 minutes of daily recess. The other half get 20 minutes of daily recess. One school has a 30 minute recess. The number of minutes for recess includes the time spent for the students to quietly line up and then walk to/from the playground, so the allotted minutes are actually less than stated. The state of Texas is going to a minutes vs. days schedule in the fall, so elementary schools in AISD will be adding on extra minutes to the school day in the fall of 2016. Concerned AISD parents would like to see those extra minutes be used for mandatory recess. Currently, there is no AISD policy on recess.
The Dallas ISD Board recently approved a mandatory district-wide recess policy requiring 30 minutes of daily recess for all of their 150 elementary schools.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has published a report finding that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child's development offering enhanced cognitive processing, improved attention and productivity in the classroom, improved social and communication skills, diminished stress, as well as improved physical well-being.
The AAP considers recess as unstructured physical activity and play and views recess as having unique benefits that are separate and distinct from P.E. Many schools offer P.E., “walk and talk” and other movement-based activities within the classroom. While these efforts are notable, they are not substitutes for recess.
The AAP finds that “to maximize cognitive benefits, recess should be scheduled at regular intervals, providing children sufficient time to regain their focus before instruction continues.” In addition, “minimizing or eliminating recess may be counterproductive to academic achievement, as a growing body of evidence suggests that recess promotes not only physical health and social development but also cognitive performance.”
We ask educators and education administrators to view recess as a valuable and essential component of our children’s academic development. We recognize the pressure that all schools face to improve test scores and that creating school schedules is a complex undertaking with many different components to be considered and evaluated. However, research supports that a reduced recess should not be part of the solution to addressing test scores and school schedules.
Likewise, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education outlines in a position statement that “students should not be denied recess so that they can complete class work or as a means of punishment.”
Research also shows that from the perspective of children's health and well-being, recess time should be considered a child's personal time and should not be withheld for academic or punitive reasons. A new AISD recess policy that would be very beneficial to students would include a requirement that students not be barred from recess as a form of discipline for minor infractions, and that administrators not limit access to recess as a form of discipline.
We, the current and future parents of children in AISD elementary schools, hereby support increased recess time. We petition the AISD School Board to implement a recess policy which would require a minimum of 30 minutes of daily mandatory recess.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The Crucial Role of Recess in Schools. Pediatrics Vol. 131 No. 1 January 1, 2013 pp. 183 -188 Available at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183.full
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Petition created on April 6, 2016