STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2523--A
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 26, 2015
___________
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Education -- recommitted
to the Committee on Education in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8
-- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended
and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring instruction
in physical education in certain elementary and secondary schools
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. (i) The legislature hereby finds and
2 declares that the health and physical activity of its children and youth
3 are and have been a long-standing health objective of the state. Against
4 a background of epidemic levels of child obesity, in which at least 1
5 out of 3 children is now considered overweight or obese, physical educa-
6 tion has become even more particularly important in the role it plays in
7 the state's health objectives for its children and youths.
8 (ii) According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
9 (CDC), the academic success of America's youth is strongly linked with
10 their health. Furthermore, the CDC has studied and documented that
11 students who engage in sixty minutes or more of physical activity five
12 or more days per week do better in school. Research also indicates that
13 obese children and youth have higher absenteeism and lower reading
14 proficiency scores than their non-obese peers.
15 (iii) Although it may be correlation and not causation, many kids are
16 spending less time exercising and more time in front of the TV, comput-
17 er, or video-game console. And today's busy families have fewer free
18 moments to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals. From fast food to
19 electronics, quick and easy is the reality for many people in the new
20 millennium.
21 (iv) Our schools are uniquely positioned to meet children's and
22 youth's physical activity needs. Physical education can be the corner-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04661-02-6
S. 2523--A 2
1 stone of building healthier student bodies, healthier neighborhoods and
2 higher achievement. This is true in physical education's role as an
3 integral part of a school's instruction, health education classes,
4 elementary and secondary school recess, after-school activity clubs,
5 intramural or interscholastic programs. Taken together, these sorts of
6 activities can raise children's and youth's self-esteem, physical compe-
7 tence, and open new careers and activities to them.
8 (v) The legislature finds and declares therefore that mandatory phys-
9 ical education in schools is a key part of protecting the health of our
10 children and youth, the adults into which they will grow, and an impor-
11 tant tool in preventing the myriad diseases plaguing New York that
12 derive from child obesity and lack of physical activity.
13 § 2. Subdivision 5 of section 803 of the education law, as amended by
14 chapter 118 of the laws of 1957, is amended to read as follows:
15 5. (a) It shall be the duty of the regents to adopt rules determining
16 the subjects to be included in courses of physical education provided
17 for in this section, the period of instruction in each of such courses,
18 the qualifications of teachers, and the attendance upon such courses of
19 instruction.
20 (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the regents
21 shall provide in its rules that the physical education instruction
22 requirement for all students enrolled in elementary and secondary school
23 grades in cities with a population of one million or more shall, where
24 feasible, include mandatory daily physical education, including students
25 with disabling conditions and those in alternative education programs.
26 The regents shall include in its rules that students enrolled in such
27 elementary and secondary schools shall participate in physical education
28 for a minimum of one hundred fifty minutes during each school week. The
29 regents shall provide for a two-year phase-in schedule for daily phys-
30 ical education in elementary schools in its rules.
31 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, the
32 two-year phase-in required by subdivision 5 of section 803 of the educa-
33 tion law as amended by section two of this act shall be completed no
34 later than July 1, 2019.
