Parents push state lawmakers to restore recess as school playtime shrinks

State laws push for 40-minute daily minimums as parents organize

When Kathryn Truman’s son Sawyer enrolled in kindergarten, she discovered his school gave him only 20 minutes of recess a day. The 40-year-old nurse worried he would not get enough of a mental and physical break, she said.

Truman teamed with other parents to help revive recess across Tennessee, which last year passed a law requiring at least 40 minutes of recess in elementary schools. She now helps lead the nonprofit Say Yes to Recess, which has chapters in 20 states and is looking to expand recess into middle schools.

“Of course we want our kids to be good at math and reading, but what kind of people will they grow up to be? That’s determined at recess,” Truman said, citing benefits for children’s social development.

Mothers and fathers nationwide are alarmed by dwindling recess time and are calling on school administrators to restore it. In New Hampshire and Michigan, parents have had success increasing recess in some schools and are pushing for state laws mandating it. In New York, some parents say a bill backed by the statewide teachers union requiring up to 30 minutes of daily, unstructured recess time in elementary school does not go far enough.

In Michigan, Shanel Talbert said she got involved in the fight for recess when her daughter’s elementary school reduced it last year. While her daughter was not struggling academically, Talbert said she could see that she was burned out from her seven-hour school day.

Talbert and other parents launched a petition, calling for at least 60 minutes of recess, that has garnered over 1,300 signatures. They are working with a state legislator on a bill that would require 40 minutes of recess in elementary school, which Talbert said they thought was more likely to pass.

Morning and afternoon recesses were common in U.S. elementary schools during the post-World War II decades. But as pressure mounted on schools to improve test performance in the 2000s, many reduced or eliminated recess in favor of more instructional time in subjects such as reading and math. States often prescribe minimum instructional hours, and recess generally does not count.

Chicago Public Schools was among the first big-city school districts to restore daily recess in 2012, after many of its elementary schools did away with it. But the effort was slow to catch on broadly.

Pediatricians have been sounding the alarm, saying recess has both mental and physical benefits. In May, the American Academy of Pediatrics expanded its endorsement of recess beyond elementary schools to include middle and high schools. Research suggests that at least 20 minutes a day with multiple breaks is best, the AAP said.

Catherine Ramstetter, co-author of that recommendation, said recess helps children remember information and learn better. It also allows young children to develop interpersonal skills.

Ramstetter pointed to the Finnish model, in which students typically get 15 minutes of recess multiple times a day. “The importance of recess as time to connect with one another cannot be understated,” she said. “Adults ideally are not intervening in the play but close by so they can intervene when necessary.”

In Oklahoma, legislators recently pushed for more recess time as part of an effort to improve learning and test results that also included banning cellphones during school and emphasizing phonics, according to Republican state Sen. Ally Seifried.

Seifried drafted a law that passed in April requiring 40 minutes of daily recess in kindergarten through fifth grade, up from 20 minutes. “Parents who had little boys definitely recognized the importance of this,” she said.

In New Hampshire, Krissy West, a school physical therapist and mother, started advocating for more recess last year after seeing her daughter Daisy get overwhelmed, sometimes resulting in tantrums after school.

“She would say that her whole body is just ready to run,” West said. As a coping mechanism, her daughter, now 10, would ask the teacher for permission to take bathroom breaks, time she would then use to walk through the hallways.

A bill West championed, which would have required 45 to 60 minutes of recess for K-6 students, was defeated on New Hampshire’s House floor earlier this year amid concerns it would violate existing teacher contracts by requiring extra staff.

The Say Yes to Recess initiative calls for at least 60 minutes of screen-free time daily when children get to pick their activities, and that it not be withheld as punishment. The hourlong recommendation is based on research from Texas Christian University on the optimal time needed for children to reduce stress and anxiety, improve test scores, and fight obesity.

West and other parents have helped push for change locally at Valley View Community School in Farmington, N.H. This past academic year, the elementary school added a 25-minute recess block starting at 7:30 a.m., when parents can drop off their children. The start of classes was moved 10 minutes later to help accommodate it.

West said recess first thing in the day is not ideal and noted part of it became optional in practice because some children would not arrive until later. But she said she is encouraged that the school is trying to find solutions.

The school’s principal, Mark Dangora, said adding more downtime is still a work in progress. He is trying to bring daily recess time to a total of 50-55 minutes. Losing a bit of class time, so far, has not affected learning, he said.

“Children need play,” Dangora said.