A new report finds that most states are lagging behind when it comes to meeting recommendations for physical education.
Only Oregon and the District of Columbia require the amount of weekly physical education time recommended by national experts at the elementary and middle school levels, the report found.
SHAPE America (Society of Health and Physical Educators) and Voices for Healthy Kids, a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, produced the study.
The authors recommend that elementary schools provide students with 150 minutes per week of instructional P.E., while middle and high schools should provide 225 minutes per week. But only 37 percent of states require that a specific amount of time be spent in gym class in elementary school. That percentage drops to 29 percent in middle and high schools. And 62 percent of states permit schools to allow students to substitute other activities for physical education.
