WASHINGTON, DC, June 2, 2010 - An essential component of the school day has been relegated to the sidelines as more states fail to incorporate quality physical education into elementary and middle schools. The 2010 Shape of the Nation Report: Status of Physical Education in the USA shows a disturbing lack of progress in helping children build healthy bodies and healthy minds. Despite incremental improvements in making physical education a requirement, an increasing number of states have taken advantage of loopholes and allowed waivers and exemptions from physical education classes and no progress has been made in requiring daily physical education in all grades K-12. With childhood obesity rates climbing along with hypertension and high cholesterol, risk factors for heart disease and stroke, now is not the time to rollback efforts to make physical education a priority in our nation’s schools.

The American Heart Association and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education recommend that schools provide 150 minutes per week of instructional physical education for elementary school children and 225 minutes per week for middle and high school students for the entire school year. Unfortunately, only one state (Alabama) meets the nationally recommended minutes for physical education even as the childhood obesity epidemic becomes the focal point of policy and programmatic initiatives. The American Heart Association strongly supports state and federal legislation to make physical education an integral part of the curriculum and measures to strengthen school wellness policies. The First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign also provides a solid foundation for improving quality physical education as children become more active during the day. Research shows that healthy children learn more effectively and achieve more academically. Too many children already face an uphill battle to becoming more physically active with few opportunities before and after school to get the heart pumping. We must do more to reverse this trend by urging states and local school districts to step up their requirements to improve children’s health and their outlook for a long, heart-healthy life.
 

To read the full report, please visit www.naspeinfo.org/shapeofthenation.

Contact: Suzanne Ffolkes
                Director of Media Advocacy
                 202-785-7929