Bill Text: HI HCR234 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Health; School-based Physical Activity Programs

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 3-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-03-19 - Referred to EDN, FIN, referral sheet 40 [HCR234 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-HCR234-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	234
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING the department of education and department of HEALTH TO expand SCHOOL-BASED PHYSICAL activity PROGRAMS and increase student participation in those programs.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, for many students in the United States, school-based physical activities are their primary source of physical exertion, and enable them to engage in adequate physical activity before the end of the school day; and

 

     WHEREAS, schools have the ability to promote physical activity through comprehensive school physical activity programs, which can include recess, classroom-based physical activity, intramural physical activity clubs, interscholastic sports, and physical education classes; and

 

WHEREAS, increasing the quality and quantity of physical activity in schools is a key component in the larger effort to reduce the prevalence of obesity in school-aged children and prevent the future likelihood of their developing a chronic disease; and

 

WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that young people between six and seventeen years of age participate in at least sixty minutes of physical activity each day (any kind of physical activity that increases one's heart rate and makes one breathe hard some of the time for at least sixty minutes); and

 

WHEREAS, Healthy People 2020, a national health improvement agenda, includes three objectives for meeting current federal physical activity guidelines for aerobic physical activity (participation in at least sixty minutes of aerobic activity per day), muscle-strengthening activity (participation in muscle-strengthening activities at least three days per week), and aerobic physical activity and muscle-strengthening activity combined; and

 

WHEREAS, a 2010 school-based study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") found that of students nationwide in grades nine through twelve, only 15.3 per cent met the aerobic objective, 51.0 per cent met the muscle-strengthening objective, and 12.2 per cent met the objective for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities; and

 

WHEREAS, according to the CDC, only fifty-two per cent of students nationwide in grades nine through twelve attended physical education classes in an average week in 2011; and

 

WHEREAS, the 2011 Hawaii Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that thirteen per cent of Hawaii's high school students met the criteria for obesity, which requires a body mass index that is at or above the ninety-fifth percentile appropriate for the height and sex of that student; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Healthy Hawaii Initiative has identified schools as the most important institution with the potential to influence and improve the health of Hawaii's youth; and

 

     WHEREAS, the current participation requirements for physical education classes in Hawaii's schools are far below those of comparable schools across the nation, and more rigorous participation requirements should be implemented in order to improve health outcomes for youth throughout the State; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2013, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Education and Department of Health are requested to work together to expand school-based physical activity programs (including but not limited to physical education classes), and increase the frequency of participation and overall rate of participation in those programs; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education and Department of Health are requested to consider any policy reforms necessary to accomplish the expansion of school-based physical activity programs and increase in frequency of participation and overall rate of participation in those programs; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education, the Superintendent of Education, and the Director of Health.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Health; School-based Physical Activity Programs