School-age children across California will have a mandatory 30-minute recess starting in the 2024-25 school year, under a bill recently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.
On school days with early dismissal, students will be entitled to at least 15 minutes of recess.
Under the new law, educators will no longer be able to withhold recess as a form of discipline.
Educators will only be allowed to do so “unless there is an immediate threat to the physical safety of the student or the physical safety of one or more of the student’s peers,” according to the bill’s text.
The bill that became law was introduced by Senator Josh Newman, a Democrat who represents cities in Los Angeles. Orange and San Bernardino counties.
“As California finally emerges from the pandemic and its aftermath, we are seeing some of the lingering effects on children’s social-emotional development in the form of behavioural disorders that have become increasingly prevalent in classrooms,” Newman said in a statement.
“As schools and students seek to recover from COVID-related educational disruptions, the benefits of the unstructured play and peer-to-peer social interactions that recess provides are more important than ever.”