In this story we discuss:
- A brief History of Play
- Widespread non-compliance to wellness policies statewide
- Parent push-back
- School frustration at blanket discipline bans relating to recess
- How P.E. Became a Luxury in Nevada
- CCSD schools not adhering to their recess policies
- What the parent coalition is asking for
At the most recent Carson City School Board meeting, Trustees unanimously approved a revised policy protecting 45 minutes of daily recess for elementary students, walking back an earlier, controversial proposal that would have slashed playtime to just 30 minutes.
While many families were relieved by the decision, it brought up a number of questions around the concept of recess and playtime in general. Namely: isn’t recess a basic legal requirement for schools to provide?
The answer, like most things legal and policy-related is: it’s complicated.
Now, a group of parents are pushing back, and they’re organizing themselves not only for changes to their own schools, but for all students in Nevada.
A Brief History of Play
Education reformers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries completely changed the concept of a school in the US — and much of the world — by arguing that unstructured play time during the school day isn’t just a way for kids to relax, it’s a necessity for both their academic as well as social and ‘moral’ education.
By the time Baby Boomers were entering Kindergarten, playgrounds had spread across the nation, and post-World War II schools provided children with daily outdoor play periods — a time period known as the “golden age of recess.”
This lasted throughout the majority of the 20th century, but with the turn of the Millennium and No Child Left Behind, schools began shortening (or entirely eliminating) recess minutes in favor of instructional time in an attempt to bring scores up.
Here at home in Nevada, physical activity, nutrition and playtime has been consistently heralded by state leaders as an important aspect of the educational system. However, while the state implemented a School Wellness Policy in 2007, it did not legally require a set number of recess minutes, or prevent schools from withholding breaks for academic or disciplinary reasons.
In 2014, a review of school wellness policy implementation found widespread noncompliance in Nevada’s schools — especially when it came to physical activity breaks in both recess and P.E.
Despite this, there has still been no adoption of compliance enforcement measures more than a decade later.
Assessment found widespread non-compliance with wellness policy statewide over a decade ago
The 2014 Nevada School Wellness Practices reports, which assessed K-12 public schools, found highly inconsistent physical activity and nutrition practices and revealed that most Nevada schools fell far short of national recommendations for recess and physical education.
The review highlighted significant gaps at Washoe County School District (WCSD), finding that only 35% of elementary schools had a designated school wellness coordinator. A very low percentage of elementary schools provided the nationally recommended 150 minutes of physical education per week, and only 7% provided at least 90 minutes a week. However, the district performed slightly better regarding recess, with 63% of elementary schools providing at least 100 minutes of recess per week. In terms of nutrition, over half of the elementary schools participated in a fresh fruit and vegetable snack program, though only 14% offered a salad bar.
Carson City School District In Carson City, out of the five elementary schools that completed the survey, four reported having a school wellness coordinator. Physical activity opportunities were similarly lacking, with only one reporting elementary school requiring at least 150 minutes of physical education per week, and just two schools meeting the recommendation of providing at least 100 minutes of weekly recess. Regarding nutrition practices, four elementary schools provided daily nutrition breaks and student access to a salad bar, but none of the schools participated in the fresh fruits and vegetables program.
A formal reassessment has not been completed at the state level; however, of the 41 Carson City parents who responded to our poll yesterday, 20 out of 41 said their elementary students are receiving the required three 15-minute recess breaks each day, while 21 of 41 said their students were receiving 1-2 recesses each day for 15-30 minutes total.
Schools providing 45 minutes each day are in alignment with district policy. But those falling short are mirroring our neighbors to the north: WCSD officially recommends 30 minutes of daily recess for elementary students, but even this varies significantly between school sites.
Some schools provide the same recess time for all students, while many drop afternoon recess for 4th and 5th graders. Some parents report recess is routinely taken away from classes for disciplinary or academic reasons, leaving those affected with only a 15-minute break across their 6-hour school day.
And this discrepancy is the very issue that parents are attempting to reform: by leaving these decisions up to school districts and individual principals, they say it is not providing students with an equitable education and goes directly against research-based standards that support children need outdoor play to learn.
The parents pushing back
Earlier this year, a group of moms came together to launch the “Wait Until 8th” campaign in Washoe County. That campaign asks parents to pledge to keep their kids off smartphones until the end of middle school to protect their mental wellbeing and socialization.
Since then, their mission has rapidly expanded, and now they’re not just advocating to roll back smartphone use: they’re taking their demands — which include legal protections for recess, banning unproven and expensive edtech purchases and ‘excessive’ screen use for young students and more — to the state level.
Brandi Vesco is a former education and technology reporter, and one of the parents who initiated the Wait Until 8th campaign in Washoe County. Now, she is one of the organizers for the Washoe Parents Coalition, the grassroots advocacy groups working to bring forward a number of wellness policy changes at both the local and state level.
She said when it comes to recess advocacy, her journey began when her 7-year-old daughter came home and revealed she had been forced to miss one of her 15-minute recess periods to sit in a “study hall” to complete academic work.
Vesco said she soon discovered that withholding recess for academic catch-up or discipline is a common practice across the district despite state guidance stating recess shouldn’t be withheld for either.
She’s referring to language within the wellness policy that explicitly states: Schools shall not withhold opportunities for physical activity, e.g. recess, physical education, etc. as punishment. Both WCSD and CCSD have adopted the state language into their own district-level policies.
When Vesco started looking into these policies more, she said she found her daughter’s experience wasn’t an isolated classroom level choice.
“They have that daily study hall with lots of kids every day missing second recess to complete worksheets, and what I’m hearing is kids are being withheld for academic and disciplinary reasons at most if not all school sites.”
Schools frustrated by blanket discipline bans relating to recess
While Vesco and other parent advocates want schools to be banned from taking recess away, it also brings up another nuanced topic: educators nationwide are reporting student behavioral issues are increasing at a startling rate.
For some, a 15-minute recess is treated as more important than learning or appropriate behavior.
But when schools are hindered by state laws that effectively block certain disciplinary actions such as classroom removal, after-school detention, suspension or expulsion as we detailed earlier this year, teachers are asking: what else can use for discipline other than taking recess away?
In March, Christine Wagner, a teacher at Fritsch Elementary, spoke during public comment about the increasingly aggressive and sometimes violent behavior teachers are facing in the classroom.
She expressed frustration that the protection of a 15-minute recess was being treated as more important than learning or behavior, and argued that withholding that time so students can “refocus and reflect on behavior is reasonable and does not harm a child.” She also argued it should be acceptable to use that time to have students complete assignments they refused to do in class or catch up on missed work.
When asked about this perspective, Vesco acknowledged it’s a complex situation.
“What leverage do teachers have is definitely a question that comes up,” she said. “[Not] withholding for academic reasons is a lot more clear-cut than for disciplinary reasons. But when you actually think about it, you have someone who’s acting out and bursting with energy; [withholding recess is] the last thing they need. It kind of shoots yourself in the foot in the long run, because they need to get out and run around.”
She said it’s also a “short term band-aid” that causes more issues in the long term because it damages the student-teacher relationship, “which we know from decades of research is the cornerstone of how much learning is going to happen. And I’m sure teachers are overwhelmed. But I’ve heard teachers say: ‘this is the only thing they care about, so I’m taking it away.’ It’s the only bright spot in their school day, so let’s remove it? And then we wonder why chronic absenteeism is sky high.”
Vesco and the Washoe Parents Coalition aren’t advocating for recess just for the sake of letting kids run off steam; they say that what they really want is for the state and districts to make research-backed decisions, rather than being reactive or experimenting, and to hold schools accountable when they’re not complying with their policies or state laws.
This is especially important to the coalition when current decisions can vary wildly from district to district — or even school to school.
The P.E. Privilege: How Physical Education Became a Luxury in Nevada
One of the most startling discoveries Vesco made during this process is the fact that, unlike CCSD and many other districts, WCSD does not fund P.E. teachers in elementary schools. Despite this, some elementary schools do have them — but only if parents fundraise their salaries themselves.
The national recommendation for elementary school P.E. says children should receive 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week.
In Nevada, however, while the Department of Education has established academic content standards for physical education, it does not legally mandate a minimum number of instructional minutes. Consequently, most districts fall severely short.
According to the 2014 state wellness assessment, only 7% of Washoe County School District elementary schools provided even 90 minutes of P.E. per week.
In some cases teachers play indoor classroom games like ‘Heads Up, Seven Up’ and log it as meeting the P.E. standard.
In Washoe County schools without a wealthy PTO to foot the bill, the burden of physical education falls entirely on traditional classroom teachers.
“If you live in a poor area, you’re less likely to have it,” Vesco said.
Because the state’s P.E. standards are exceptionally broad—requiring basic milestones like knowing how to balance or move laterally—teachers often fulfill the requirement with as little as 30 minutes of activity a week according to Vesco.
In some cases, she discovered, teachers will simply play indoor classroom games like “Heads Up, Seven Up” and log it as meeting the physical education standard.
In comparison, CCSD funds full time certified P.E. teachers at every elementary school, and at a recent school board meeting, it was mentioned how they are a rarity in the state because of it.
For parent advocates, this cross-county disparity highlights their core legislative argument: until the Nevada legislature passes strict, statewide statutory mandates, essential developmental needs like physical activity will remain a luxury dictated by a school’s fundraising abilities or a child’s zip code.
Because, according to the coalition, even when both state and district policies are explicitly laid out, if they lack legal enforcement, there can be no accountability.
CCSD discussions reveal schools have not been adhering to recess policies
While Carson’s new recess regulation does protect the amount of recess a child is allotted, it also pulled a 2016 blanket ban on withholding recess for academic or disciplinary reasons — which trustees said was already occurring at the majority of (if not all) CCSD elementary schools regardless.
Trustee Rebecca Roberts said that she felt it was important to “stand up for these kiddos and really have their recess protected,” after they’d received reports of schools across the district not honoring the mandatory 45 minute recess time, and that “a lot of whole group punishment was happening for one or two children’s behavior” which had already been prohibited.
This was pulled and rewritten in the new policy because, according to MTSS Director Christy Perkins, “the way the previous policy was written was very restrictive to our administrative staff in that they could never remove recess.”
She said that there are situations in which students should not be sent out to recess for the safety of others, and while they acknowledge the importance of daily recess, “there are scenarios where administrators were quite frustrated that the student was having a very difficult day right before recess time, and then go out to play, which also can look as a reward to those students who’ve been impacted by aggressive or physical behavior.”
This 45 minutes wasn’t being honored [and] a lot of whole group punishment was happening … I felt it was important to stand up for these kiddos and really have their recess protected.
The new policy is meant to protect students’ access to outside recreation, while also providing structured behavioral support. Perkins gave an example that a principal could tell the student, “instead of going out for recess, we’re going to go play basketball together and try to calm down, whatever the plan is for that individual student.”
While this idea idea aligns with what the Washoe Parents Coalition are after — namely, making sure kids get to play and run around outside every day no matter what — it also highlights the issue they are trying to fix: this policy is implemented at CCSD, but other districts haven’t made the same protections. And, while trustees acknowledged schools and teachers were not adhering to the policy already in place, there were no discussions on how to hold them accountable.
Vesco says this is because the state policy has “no teeth, enforcement, or compliance oversight,” which has led to individual schools ignoring it without consequence.
To address this, the coalition is trying to “go over the heads of districts and directly to the Capitol.” She said they’re actively working with legislators to introduce a bill asking for a statewide implementation of a 45 minute minimum recess requirement, and prohibit recess from being withheld as punishment or for academic make-up.
By changing these requirements from policies to law, it will make them enforceable, Vesco says — giving parents the “teeth” they need to hold schools accountable themselves.
But they’re not only asking for changes made to recess or P.E. — they want to roll back the last decade of edtech implementations to get kids back to pens and paper.
More on that tomorrow. Stay tuned!
