Accountability and Funding for State-Level School Physical Education and Recess Laws
Hannah R. Thompson, Ursula Lochner-Bravo, Jonanne Talebloo, Jennie N Davis, Jennifer Falbe
Abstract
School physical education and recess provide important opportunities to increase youth physical activity and socioemotional development. However, compliance with existing laws is low at the elementary level. Reported barriers to law implementation include limited accountability and funding. However, the number of state physical education and recess laws that stipulate accountability and/or funding remains unknown. This cross-sectional review of active U.S. state-level laws related to public elementary school physical education and recess was conducted between October and December 2024. The Classification of Laws Associated with School Students and the National Association of State Boards of Education databases, along with web searches, were used to identify laws. Laws were double coded for inclusion of accountability- and funding-related language. Forty-nine U.S. states (96.1%) had physical education laws, and 22 (43.1%) had recess law; 21 (41.2%) had both. Among states with physical education law, 12 (25.5%) and 1 (2.0%) included language on accountability and funding, respectively. Among states with recess laws, 5 (22.7%) included language related to accountability, and none contained funding-related language. State-level physical education and recess legislation is highly prevalent, but most laws do not contain accountability-related language; virtually none contain funding-related language, which may be inhibiting implementation and driving inequities in related health outcomes. Additional research examining the relationship between accountability and funding language in physical education and recess laws and the degree of implementation of the laws is necessary to help inform the development of stronger laws to support the provision of quality physical education and recess in schools nationally.