Exercise

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that young people (ages 6–17) participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily.¹ Yet a 2007 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that a quarter of all high school students, and nearly one in three female students (32%), had not participated in 60 minutes of physical activity on even one day during the previous week. Young women are less likely than young men to have met recommended levels of exercise (44% compared to 26%), and Black and Hispanic females are even less likely than White females to have met recommended levels (21%, 22%, and 28%, respectively).² And, while 40% of 9th grade students attended physical education class daily in 2007, fewer than one in four 12th grade students did.³ Promoting physical activity in school is crucial to encouraging girls to reap the health benefits of regular exercise and to develop good lifelong exercise habits. The Report Card examines states’ policies on physical education (PE) requirements for high school students.

Impact of the Affordable Care Act

States have already begun receiving funds to implement new "Personal Responsibility Education Programs" which must include information on contraception, abstinence, healthy relationships, and other adult preparation topics. The programs must be evidence-based, medically accurate, and age-appropriate. If states do not apply for program funding, local entities will be able to access the funds by the third year of the grant. The Affordable Care Act also restores funding for Title V abstinence-only programs through 2014.

Does the state require students in grades nine through twelve to take four years of physical education in order to graduate?

States with laws requiring that high school students take physical education every year of enrollment receive a "meets policy." States requiring that high school students take physical education during a portion of their high school enrollment receive a "limited policy." States receive a "weak policy" if they only require that high schools offer or provide physical education courses (without an additional requirement that students complete those courses) or if they allow students to fulfill physical education requirements by taking personal wellness or health courses which may not include actual physical activity. States that do not require high school students to participate in any physical education receive a “no policy”.

The source for this indicator has modified the way it collects data on high school PE requirements, necessitating a change in evaluation criteria. Consequently, there is no comparison to 2007.

State	Strength of Policy	Change from 2007
Alabama	Weak Policy	N/A
Alaska	Limited Policy	N/A
Arizona	No Policy	N/A
Arkansas	Limited Policy	N/A
California ⁴	Limited Policy	N/A
Colorado	No Policy	N/A
Connecticut	Limited Policy	N/A
Delaware	Limited Policy	N/A
District of Columbia	Limited Policy	N/A
Florida	Weak Policy	N/A
Georgia	Limited Policy	N/A
Hawaii	Limited Policy	N/A
Idaho	No Policy	N/A
Illinois	Meets Policy	N/A
Indiana	Limited Policy	N/A
Iowa	Meets Policy	N/A
Kansas	Limited Policy	N/A
Kentucky	Limited Policy	N/A
Louisiana	Limited Policy	N/A
Maine	Limited Policy	N/A
Maryland	Limited Policy	N/A
Massachusetts	Meets Policy	N/A
Michigan	Weak Policy	N/A
Minnesota	Weak Policy	N/A
Mississippi	Limited Policy	N/A
Missouri	Limited Policy	N/A
Montana	Weak Policy	N/A
Nebraska	Weak Policy	N/A
Nevada	Limited Policy	N/A
New Hampshire	Limited Policy	N/A
New Jersey	Meets Policy	N/A
New Mexico	Limited Policy	N/A
New York	Meets Policy	N/A
North Carolina	Weak Policy	N/A
North Dakota	Limited Policy	N/A
Ohio	Limited Policy	N/A
Oklahoma	Weak Policy	N/A
Oregon	Limited Policy	N/A
Pennsylvania	Weak Policy	N/A
Rhode Island	Meets Policy	N/A
South Carolina	Limited Policy	N/A
South Dakota	Limited Policy	N/A
Tennessee	Limited Policy	N/A
Texas	Limited Policy	N/A
Utah	Limited Policy	N/A
Vermont	Limited Policy	N/A
Virginia	Limited Policy	N/A
Washington	Weak Policy	N/A
West Virginia	Limited Policy	N/A
Wisconsin	Limited Policy	N/A
Wyoming ⁵	Weak Policy	N/A

Policy Indicator Counts

Meets Policy:

6

Limited Policy:

31

Weak Policy:

11

No/Harmful Policy:

3

Better:

0

Same:

0

Worse:

0

Data Source: National Association of Sport and Physical Education, Shape of the Nation Report: Status of Physical Education in the USA, (Reston: National Association of Sport and Physical Education, 2010).

Footnotes

¹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008).

² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2007,” Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report 57, no.SS-4, 2008, 27, available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/ss/ss5704.pdf, accessed September 24, 2010.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Although California Law requires that high School students take PE all four years of high school, local educational agencies may institute exemptions allowing high school students to take only 2 years of physical education and receive a diploma.

⁵ In Wyoming, physical education (as a class) is not mandated by state law, but graduation standards in physical education are required.