Gov. Gina Raimondo recently signed into law a bill that requires elementary schools to have at least 20 minutes of free play recess during the school day for children in kindergarten through …
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Gov. Gina Raimondo recently signed into law a bill that requires elementary schools to have at least 20 minutes of free play recess during the school day for children in kindergarten through sixth grade.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Kathleen A. Fogarty (D-Dist. 35, South Kingstown) and Sen. Cynthia A. Coyne (D-Dist. 32, Barrington, Bristol, East Providence)
The law (2016-H 7644Aaa, 2016-S 2669Aaa) defines free play as being in an unstructured environment supervised by appropriate school personnel and discourages schools from taking away recess for academic or punitive reasons. The law applies to pupils in kindergarten through sixth grade.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a growing trend toward reallocating time in school to accentuate the more academic subjects has put recess at risk. The organization has stated that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development.
According to the legislation, free play recess may be considered instructional time for those schools that would be required to extend the current school day in order to meet this requirement.
In addition, it requires teachers to make a good faith effort to not withhold recess for punitive reasons. Although recess and physical education both promote activity and a healthy lifestyle, it is only supervised but unstructured recess that offers children the opportunity to actually play creatively, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.