Bill Text: NY S06194 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires instruction in physical education in certain elementary and secondary schools including for students with disabling conditions and those in alternative education programs.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO EDUCATION [S06194 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S06194-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6194

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                      April 3, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Education

        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-
    23  stone  of building healthier student bodies, healthier neighborhoods and
    24  higher achievement. This is true in  physical  education's  role  as  an
    25  integral  part  of  a  school's  instruction,  health education classes,

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07584-01-3
        S. 6194                             2

     1  elementary and secondary school  recess,  after-school  activity  clubs,
     2  intramural  or  interscholastic programs. Taken together, these sorts of
     3  activities can raise children's and youth's self-esteem, physical compe-
     4  tence, and open new careers and activities to them.
     5    (v)  The legislature finds and declares therefore that mandatory phys-
     6  ical education in schools is a key part of protecting the health of  our
     7  children  and youth, the adults into which they will grow, and an impor-
     8  tant tool in preventing the  myriad  diseases  plaguing  New  York  that
     9  derive from child obesity and lack of physical activity.
    10    §  2. Subdivision 5 of section 803 of the education law, as amended by
    11  chapter 118 of the laws of 1957, is amended to read as follows:
    12    5. (a) It shall be the duty of the regents to adopt rules  determining
    13  the  subjects  to  be included in courses of physical education provided
    14  for in this section, the period of instruction in each of such  courses,
    15  the  qualifications of teachers, and the attendance upon such courses of
    16  instruction.
    17    (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section,  the  regents
    18  shall  provide  in  its  rules  that  the physical education instruction
    19  requirement for all students enrolled in elementary and secondary school
    20  grades in cities with a population of one million or more  shall,  where
    21  feasible, include mandatory daily physical education, including students
    22  with  disabling  conditions and those in alternative education programs.
    23  The regents shall include in its rules that students  enrolled  in  such
    24  elementary and secondary schools shall participate in physical education
    25  for  a  minimum of one hundred fifty minutes during each school week. On
    26  or before July first, two thousand twenty-six, the regents shall provide
    27  for a two-year phase-in schedule for daily physical education in elemen-
    28  tary schools in its rules.
    29    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.