{"id":282502,"date":"2026-09-09T21:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282502\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:46:10","slug":"pa-gov-shapiro-celebrates-elementary-school-recess-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282502\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. Gov. Shapiro celebrates elementary school recess legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a bill Wednesday making recess mandatory for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.\n<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Shapiro said the recess time will allow elementary school students to \u201ctake a break from learning, get outside, and just be kids.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my eyes, recess is just as important as learning math, English, science, or history \u2014 recess is crucial for things like building social skills and staying active,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now, we\u2019re making sure our kids have the tools they need to succeed both inside AND outside the classroom.\u201d\n  <\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania\u2019s state legislature approved House Bill 1505 earlier this year, which was included in the state\u2019s 2026-27 budget, requiring the state\u2019s Board of Education to provide guidance on recess measures to promote \u201cmovement, social interaction, and stress management\u201d to improve the learning environment.\n<\/p>\n<p>All schools should provide K-5 students with at least 30 minutes of daily recess, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/content\/dam\/copapwp-pagov\/en\/stateboard\/documents\/about-the-board\/board-actions\/2026\/recommendations%20pertaining%20to%20access%20to%20recess%20for%20students.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">state\u2019s recommendations for recess activities<\/a>. Sixth graders should also receive recess if they attend school in the same building.\n<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Philadelphia public school advocates celebrated changes to the district\u2019s student wellness policy <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-schools-wellness-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">guaranteeing students recess, bathroom access and water breaks<\/a>.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[451,28,223,30,29],"class_list":["post-282502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-governor-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-education","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282502","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=282502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}