By Jack Tomczuk<\/p>\n
School District of Philadelphia<\/a> students now have guaranteed recess and bathroom breaks, under new rules adopted last week.<\/p>\n The policy is the first-ever comprehensive set of regulations dedicated to student wellness, according to Lift Every Voice (LEV) Philly<\/a>, a parent group that advocated for the changes for more than 18 months as part of a campaign to make schools more joyful spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cWe refused to accept schools where our children could not drink water freely, where daily movement and recess were denied and where collective punishment and silent lunches were treated as normal,\u201d LEV board member Jamila Carter said.<\/p>\n The guidelines stipulate that, provided there is adequate staffing, all elementary and middle schools should have at least 20 minutes of recess, separate from gym class. Electronic devices should be limited while children are playing, the policy states.<\/p>\n Outdoor recess should be prioritized, particularly if the temperature is above freezing. It should not be canceled as a group punishment.<\/p>\n Elementary school students are also supposed to have movement breaks every 90 minutes during the day.<\/p>\n All schools should develop a plan to provide students \u201cwith access to bathrooms as needed,\u201d according to the wellness rules.<\/p>\n \u2018Silent lunches,\u2019 during which students are forbidden from speaking to each other, should be \u201crare exceptions,\u201d the policy indicates; otherwise, children should be allowed to socialize respectfully at meal time.<\/p>\n Drinking water needs to be available throughout the day, and teachers are encouraged to provide at least two daily water breaks. Food and drinks should not be used as rewards, and withholding them should not be deployed as punishment, according to the regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen basic protections aren’t written down, they become negotiable. They depend on which building you’re in or which parent feels empowered enough to speak up,\u201d LEV board member Amy Faulring said. \u201cCodifying this into policy changes that. It sets a clear floor. It creates consistency and it makes dignity non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n The Board of Education<\/a> approved the wellness policy at its Feb. 26 meeting, which stretched into Friday morning, as dozens of students, staff and others testified on the district\u2019s proposed consolidation plan.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI wish we had done this much sooner, but I’m pleased that we’re doing it today,\u201d Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. said about the new rules.<\/p>\n LEV members, holding signs and clad in purple shirts, gathered to celebrate the changes Monday afternoon in the atrium of the Constance E. Clayton Education Center, the district\u2019s headquarters on North Broad Street.<\/p>\n \u201cOur children told us what was wrong,\u201d added LaTi Spence, a parent of two students at Henry H. Houston School in West Mount Airy. \u201cThey told us what it felt like to sit in classrooms thirsty, how hard it was to have silent lunches. They told us where joy was missing.\u201d<\/p>\n Spence said in the coming weeks, LEV will focus on providing parents across Philadelphia with information about their children\u2019s new rights under the wellness guidelines and make sure every school employee is trained on the policy.<\/p>\n \n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tPhiladelphia school district,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t School District of Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t wellness policy,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t recess\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jack Tomczuk School District of Philadelphia students now have guaranteed recess and bathroom breaks, under new rules…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,8973,25070,1998,59961],"class_list":["post-128887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-school-district","tag-recess","tag-school-district-of-philadelphia","tag-wellness-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}