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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 31, 2023 01:15 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Danielle Friel Otten |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | School Free-Play Recess and Lunch Periods |
| Recess is an essential part of a student’s school experience that contributes important benefits to a child’s growth and development. Children who participate in recess have improved memory and concentration skills, and those who have at least 15 minutes of recess a day display less disruptive classroom behavior. Providing a regular period of unstructured time during the school day gives young children a necessary break for physical activity and free play, optimizing their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development, and gives adolescents and teens a much-needed mental health break in their otherwise tightly scheduled day. Despite the significant benefits of recess, however, schools in Pennsylvania currently have no requirement to provide a specific amount of time for daily free-play recess and lunch periods. Furthermore, existing recess or lunch periods are frequently missed for punishment, extra academic classes, testing, or make-up time for missed work. To ensure that all students in Pennsylvania have time during the school day that is dedicated to recess and lunch, I am reintroducing my legislation that would require schools in Pennsylvania to provide 30 minutes of recess and 30 minutes of lunch for all students in grades K-12. This legislation will help to support our children’s mental and physical health as well as their social and emotional development and ensure that they have the opportunity to be physically active and interact with others during their school day. I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this legislation (previously introduced as HB1949 of 2019-20 and HB2063 of 2021-22), for the benefit of all Pennsylvania students. |
Introduced as HB1604