TENNESSEE STATE LEGISLATION ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN KINDERGARDEN THROUGH TWELTH GRADE.

Tennessee recently passed legislation that all public and private schools must have at least 90 minutes of physical activity, for each grade, during the course a week.

This legislation will go into effect August 2007.

Reasons for this new legislation

“Physical Education has declined over the past decade.  In addition, the Department of Education no longer employs a state-level physical education consultant.  The percentage of students who attend physical education class daily declined between 1991 & 2003.  According to a 2000 Center for Disease Control and Prevention study, only six to eight percent of elementary, middle, and high schools provide daily physical education for the entire school year.” (Morgan, Weighing the Costs of Obesity in Tennessee, 2005)

“State law has recognized Tennessee as a state with epidemic proportions of childhood obesity, one of the highest rates of pediatric obesity and childhood type II diabetes, and one of the highest rates of heart disease in the United States.” (Morgan, Weighing the Costs of Obesity in Tennessee, 2005)

“Obesity affects everything in your body so it causes deterioration, whether it’s metabolic deterioration such as diabetes, vascular deterioration such as stroke and heart attack, or mechanical deterioration such as musculoskeletal problems.” (Gardner, Rising Disability in the Young Tied to Obesity, 2004)