{"id":116100,"date":"2026-01-13T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/116100\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:00:11","slug":"florida-bill-proposes-20-minute-daily-recess-for-middle-school-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/116100\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida bill proposes 20-minute daily recess for middle school students"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 Newly proposed legislation could bring 20 minutes of recess to middle school students in Florida.<\/p>\n

Two related bills, sponsored by Rep. Paula Stark and Sen. Kristen Arrington, would require schools to provide 100 minutes per week of “free-play” to kids from 6th to 8th grade. <\/p>\n

Watch Fox 4’s Allie Kaiser speak with parents about the proposed legislation: <\/p>\n

Proposed Florida legislation would require 20 minutes of daily recess for middle school students<\/p>\n

Parents at Skyline Elementary School expressed support for the proposal during school pickup.<\/p>\n

“It’s like let the kids be kids,” said Ashley Knowlton, mother of two children.<\/p>\n

Danielle Luis, also a mother of two, believes the break would help students refocus.<\/p>\n

“If they get that 20-minute break, they’ll be able to focus better for the next set of classes they have,” Luis said.<\/p>\n

\"Books<\/p>\n

Fox 4<\/p>\n

Some parents told Fox 4 that recess could give students a “brain break” from their studies and help them get refreshed to continue learning. <\/p>\n

Denise Parrish, grandmother of three, said recess time could help middle school students burn off excess energy. Her daughter teaches middle school and has witnessed the challenges firsthand.<\/p>\n

“Just to take a little bit of that out, because it gets pretty hectic sometimes,” Parrish said.<\/p>\n

The proposed legislation would not apply to charter schools.<\/p>\n

Parents questioned about potential impacts on learning time, but remained optimistic about the daily break.<\/p>\n

\"Bikes<\/p>\n

Fox 4<\/p>\n

Parents told Fox 4 that adding recess at middle schools would give students a chance to release some energy during the school day. <\/p>\n

“Twenty minutes is really not that long,” Knowlton said.<\/p>\n

Luis agreed and said students “can regroup themselves and be able to go back and focus more on school.”<\/p>\n

The bill’s sponsors did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

You can read more about Senate Bill 1518 here<\/a> and House Bill 1149 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 Newly proposed legislation could bring 20 minutes of recess to middle school students in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5238,58607,209,263,211,210,100,264,44337,12037,6484,58605,58606],"class_list":{"0":"post-116100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-bill","9":"tag-bipartisan","10":"tag-cape-coral","11":"tag-cape-coral-florida","12":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","13":"tag-cape-coral-news","14":"tag-florida-legislature","15":"tag-fox-4","16":"tag-kristen-arrington","17":"tag-middle-school","18":"tag-paula-stark","19":"tag-recess","20":"tag-skyline-elementary-school"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}