San Antonio student Michaelie Love knows that, for many high school students, the hour before school begins is spent socializing or cramming for tests—not in the cafeteria eating a healthy breakfast. Breakfast is included in the federal school nutrition program and is free or reduced-price for students who qualify. Latinos represent more than one-fifth of students participating in this federal program, but are they showing up for breakfast? Health professionals say skipping breakfast before school can lead to poor academic performance and unhealthy over-eating later in the day. Love wanted to make eating breakfast at school easy, healthy, and cool.
Breakfast Habits among Youth
The North East Independent School District (NEISD) is the second-largest school district in San ...
In order for kids to be healthy and do better in school, more and more researchers are finding that kids need to be physically active. To expand opportunities for physical education in schools, lawmakers have reintroduced legislation which would authorize physical education grants to schools in exchange for states adopting improved physical activity standards. The Fitness Integrated with Teaching (FIT) Kids Act was recently introduced to the house and senate by representatives Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Patrick Meehan, R-Penn., along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. In addition to improving physical activity standards, the bill would serve to restore a 37% of funding cut sustained to the Carol M. White Physical Education Program which occurred during Fiscal Year 2015. Read the ...
U.S. Senators from the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions have approved the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which requires that physical education be taught as part of the core curriculum at both the elementary and middle school levels. The bill which was originally enacted in 1965 and was recently updated to include an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., which reinstates the Carol M. White Physical Education Program, and supports opportunities for students to meet state standards for physical education. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill later this spring. Read more about the amendment reauthorizing the Carol M. White Physical Education Program here. To learn more about the importance of providing ...
Physical education (PE) and exercise play vital roles in the healthy development of a child, yet for many schools PE is often underrated. According to Dr. Gregory Myer, director of research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Sports Medicine Division, many kids only get PE once a week. While students must be well prepared academically, can students really thrive and reach their fullest potential without being given an opportunity time to be physically active throughout the school day? Myers believes it's time we take a new approach to how we look at physical activity. Instead of just looking at minutes spent being active, perhaps we need to take into account more. Myers says we should begin exploring aspects of physical activity that might lead to: (1) ...
In 2011, two years after Latino parents in Chicago began working to raise awareness of the need for recess in schools, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) finally announced they would be working to reincorporate recess back into the school day. According to a blog post from the Healthy Schools Campaign a group of parents from the Parents United For Healthy Schools organization gathered over 4,000 signatures as part of a petition in support of recess. This helped ultimately get the attention of the district's Office of Student Health and Wellness (OSHW), who's mission is to oversee the well being of students and the implementation of health promoting policies for the district. Research shows that schools with mostly Latino students are less likely to offer students at least 20 minutes ...
Policymakers in Virginia, a state with one of the largest Salvadorean populations in the U.S., have proposed legislation that would require all K-5th grade schools to offer students at least 20 minutes of daily physical activity. If passed the new law would make physical activity a priority for students in the state of Virginia, by ensuring that all students have the opportunity to participate in activities such as PE, recess, and extracurricular activities on a day to day basis. According to a Newsplex.com report, Senator John Miller of Newport News, who introduced the bill into the Senate said: "Requiring 20 minutes of physical activity every day a child is in school is the right thing to do and it will not require additional funding..." The importance making physical ...
According to California state law, all elementary school students should receive a minimum of 200 minutes of physical education (PE) every 10 days. For middle school students the number increases to 400 minutes of PE every 10 days. Unfortunately, Latino students, along with other minority & low-income students, are often denied access to physical education, despite widespread support for physical education among California's constituents. In fact, The City Project reports that Californians not only favor PE, but they support it more than any other obesity prevention policy. When low-income students and students of color receive disproportionately lower levels of physical education and schools fail to comply with state law---The City Project says this becomes a civil rights ...
Over 1,000 kids (including many Latinos) will be running in the New York Road Runners' (NYRR) first-ever Times Square Kids Run! The free event which is part of the NYRR's Five-Borough Series is set to kick-off on Sunday March 15, 2015 alongside the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon.
Events like these are especially important for Latino kids who are often faced with multiple barriers to physical activity.
For kids at one school, PS 159 in the Bronx, programs like the NYRR's young runners program provide them with the opportunity to be physically active on a regular basis. At PS 159, teacher Sally Bojorquez leads the running team in morning runs on a weekly basis. For some of the students running in the race, this will be their first time leaving the Bronx. Starting at ...
A House bill aimed at increasing daily physical activity among elementary school students was introduced to the Maryland legislature, Feb. 4, 2015. If enacted, elementary school students would receive a total of 150 minutes per week of physical activity, with a minimum of 90 minutes devoted to physical education (PE). According to the bill, the remaining minutes should consist of "developmentally appropriate moderate-to-vigorous," activities such as recess. Additionally, the bill would require that all public elementary schools develop a physical activity leadership team who would oversee the planning of activities that would increase the quality and quantity of physical activity.The state board would be responsible for adopting regulations that would facilitate the implementation ...