Our 5th grade children deserve recess, an unstructured time for play and connection among their peers.

Unstructured play time during the school day is proven to yield better academic results as well as countless other benefits like social emotional skills (incredibly critical during this digital age of isolation) via studies conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics and others. 

It's our job as parents to act as our child's advocate to make sure we are doing what is best and right for our children. If we choose not to act, our children's mental health, academics, socialization skills and physical health could be negatively impacted. 

In addition, we are asking the school to comply with the Healthy Active Children Policy (HSP-S-000) which requires that ALL K-8th grade have at least 30 min of activity time daily. Currently, grades 6-8 do not have this as PE is scheduled on a semester basis.

We also seek to educate ALL staff member on this policy which states: "Structured/unstructured recess and other physical activity (such as, but not limited to, physical activity time, physical education or intramurals) shall not be taken away from students as a form of punishment. In addition, severe and/or inappropriate exercise may not be used as a form of punishment for students."

Please take the time to sign this petition to let the school know that we as parents place recess and unstructured socialization time during the school day as a priority for the development of our young kids. 

Info per AAP: 

In their role as child health experts, the pediatricians of the AAP stress the following perspective to parents, teachers, school administrators, and policy makers:

• Recess is a necessary break in the day for optimizing a child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. In essence, recess should be considered a child’s personal time, and it should not be withheld for academic or punitive reasons.
• Cognitive processing and academic performance depend on regular breaks from concentrated classroom work. This applies equally to adolescents and to younger children. To be effective, the frequency and duration of breaks should be sufficient to allow the student to mentally decompress.
• Recess is a complement to, but not a replacement for, physical education. Physical education is an academic discipline. Whereas both have the potential to promote activity and a healthy lifestyle, only recess (particularly unstructured recess) provides the creative, social, and emotional benefits of play.
• Recess can serve as a counterbalance to sedentary time and contribute to the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day, a standard strongly supported by AAP policy as a means to lessen risk of overweight.
• Whether structured or unstructured, recess should be safe and well supervised. Although schools should ban games and activities that are unsafe, they should not discontinue recess altogether just because of concerns connected with child safety. Environmental conditions, well-maintained playground equipment, and well-trained supervisors are the critical components of safe recess.
• Peer interactions during recess are a unique complement to the classroom. The lifelong skills acquired for communication, negotiation, cooperation, sharing, problem solving, and coping are not only foundations for healthy development but also fundamental measures of the school experience.