This is the LAST thing we need. Kids need oxygen flowing through their brain to promote brain fitness!

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Report Highlights Reduction in Elementary School

Recess Time

The Center for Public Education (CPE) has released a report suggesting that elementary schools, particularly those in urban areas and those that serve predominantly low-income populations, are cutting back on recess time, the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel reports. According to an analysis of federal data conducted by CPE, 90 percent of elementary schools devote between 24 minutes and 30 minutes per day to recess. However, 20 percent of school districts included in the report said they had decreased the amount of time dedicated to recess since the establishment in 2001 of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, which requires schools to ensure every child performs at his or her grade level for reading and math by 2014. Specifically, recess time at schools that reported those reductions fell from an average of 184 minutes per week in 2001 to 144 minutes per week in 2007. Low-income, urban schools were most likely to reduce recess time or eliminate it altogether, with data suggesting that 14 percent of urban elementary schools in 2005 did not offer recess, compared with just 6 percent of schools in towns and 3 percent of schools in rural areas. Similarly, 18 percent of schools with a poverty rate above 75 percent did not provide recess to first graders, compared with 4 percent of schools with lower poverty rates. Examining the link between NCLB and recess cuts, the report also points out that districts with at least one school in need of improvement under NCLB standards were more likely to more drastically reduce recess time. While the researchers state that recess is not necessarily disappearing, they note that it is, in some cases, being phased out in favor of more classroom time (Bushouse, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 9/22/08; CPE report, 8/6/08).

 
Get them active and playing young!!