Parents Petition for Mandatory School Recess

As lawmakers in Tallahassee consider the merits of adding mandatory recess back into school days, parents across the Tampa Bay area and state are standing up for the cause.

Parents in Pinellas County have joined those in Polk, Lee, Orange and elsewhere in petitioning local school boards. In Hillsborough County, April Griffin, school board chairwoman, is taking up the cause personally, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

While county-based petitions are making the rounds on the local level, Republican lawmakers have filed bills in both the state House and Senate that would require 20 minutes of free play a day for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. The mandatory recess would also apply to some sixth-graders.

State Rep. Rene Plasenica of Orlando and Sen. Alan Hayes of Umatilla have both filed bills.

Plasencia, who is an educator by trade, filed his bill in the House on Dec. 2. It calls for “100 minutes of supervised, safe, and unstructured free-play recess” weekly for kids. If approved, the new law would go into effect July 1, 2016.

A lack of a uniform recess policy across the state made headlines earlier this year when a Polk County mother began a petition requesting 20 minutes of recess daily. The petition garnered hundreds of signatures.

What are your thoughts on this? Should kids have recess? Tell us what you think by commenting below!

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