At 10:30 a.m., the bell rings through the halls of William F. Prisk Elementary School in Long Beach, sending students running onto the playground, tossing basketballs, doing cartwheels, and sliding down slides.
Recess can be the most important 30 minutes of their school day to learn – and it’s become a contested period for the nation’s youngest students. Teachers use it as a behavioral bargaining chip, administrators measure playtime against declining test scores and researchers debate how best to schedule minutes.
The debate over recess has grown so confusing recently American Academy of Pediatrics entered and revised its policy statement. Playing is not a reward, a privilege or a waste of time to learn. It is a necessity for development.
California is enacting recess starting in the 2023-24 school year, requiring at least 30 minutes of daily playtime for K-6 students and prohibiting teachers and staff from taking it as punishment. However, researchers say there is no plan to check whether schools are fully following the order.
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Why is the break so controversial?
Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools faced increasing pressure to raise test scores, creating a fundamental tension between study time and play time.
Up to 40% of US school districts have reduced or eliminated recess during that time to free up more time for core academics, according to a national study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the group Springboard to Active Schools.
On the other side of that tension, teachers say their job is to prepare students academically for a complex, technology-driven society, according to the children’s organization. On the other hand, teachers point out that schools are responsible for developing the whole child, and that break is not a break from learning – it is an important part of it.
“Having kids sit in their seats for six hours a day is not really a recipe for success,” said Rebecca London, a UC Santa Cruz sociologist who co-authored the study that helped shape the law. “They need a mental break. Everyone needs a mental break.”
How important is a break?
The updated statement on children draws on decades of work in several areas, including social and emotional development, physical and mental health and academic performance.
“For us, we want to know if kids are growing during recess? Are they engaged? Are they really exercising? Are they benefiting from the playground?” said Celeste Soto, executive director of Playworks in Southern California, which helps schools and youth organizations plan meaningful recess strategies.
On the psychological side, pediatricians focus on what researchers call “awake relaxation.”
When students learn new information, memory becomes fragile and the brain needs a break from additional cognitive demands, according to the children’s organization. A break can provide a much-needed break for new knowledge to settle in before the next lesson begins.
Physical activity during breaks adds a second layer of benefit. Moderate physical activity has been shown to improve learning among students from elementary school through adulthood, and the effects on attention, memory and executive function are well documented, pediatricians say.
First and second graders enjoy a break on the playground during morning break at William F. Prisk Elementary School in Long Beach.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
In addition to this, the organization said that the leave is still at the discretion of each teacher in many schools across the country.
“Students are more focused when they have time to play — to put their energy out there,” said Katie Hickox, principal of Prisk Elementary. “But they also share important relationships with each other.”
Should teachers take time off?
The legal ban on withholding as a penalty has caused controversy in California.
“Many teachers and other professionals in schools feel that in order to get children to behave well, you have to have a credible threat,” said London. “One that’s easy to use: Kids really care about recess.”
In 2023, a Gallup Poll quoted in the analysis California law found that 77% of principals nationally reported taking time off as punishment. Even in school districts with strong policies protecting recess, 60% of schools still suspended it for bad behavior and 69% suspended it for incomplete work.
“There is no research that I have found that says this is an effective method of disciplining elementary school students,” said London. “However, it is a very common practice, because it is accessible.”
Soto also says that the students who are most likely to be rested are the ones who tend to benefit most from playtime.
“You think about a child who may have a problem with moving their emotions, these are children who need to move their bodies,” she said.
Free game, organized game, or in the middle – what works?
How the school organizes recess is important.
In structured play, adults lead the work, compared to free play, where children figure out what to do with little adult guidance.
At Prisk Elementary, students have four playtimes a day, varying between structured and unstructured play to promote young child development — how to take turns, how to invite play, how to accept that invitation, Hickox said.
Do all schools have equal access to recess?
Research by the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that students who live in low-income neighborhoods and attend schools with high numbers of students of color receive less recess and lower quality recess.
And they are more likely to have small or deserted outdoor spaces, small tools and adults who limit access to what little there is, according to an analysis of California law enforcement.
“The point of the bill was to fix that and make sure that every child has access,” London said, noting that inequality was the main reason for the legislation, SB-291.
First and second graders play during recess at William F. Prisk Elementary School in Long Beach.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
London argues that early investment in quality recess, especially structured, inclusive of all young students may disrupt the disciplinary pipeline before it begins.
“Instead of taking them out of the recreational area, which will not teach them how to be successful in life, we should push them to be free,” he said.
What happens when it’s too hot to play outside?
Extreme heat waves in recent years have raised a new problem for recess: What happens when it’s too hot to play outside, when blacktops and equipment can get dangerously hot?
California law requires recess to be held outside whenever weather and air quality permit. But it doesn’t specify what circumstances make outdoor play illegal, leaving individual schools to make decisions.
“Maybe you can’t recreate the basketball court outside, but what can you do? Can you have games or art or trivia or something interactive that at least gives the kids a real break?” London said.
In Los Angeles Unified, school board member Nick Melvoin said the district was prioritizing shadow buildings.
This article is part of The Times’ early childhood education program, which focuses on the learning and development of California children from birth to 5 years old. For more information about this program and its charitable sponsors, visit latimes.com/earlyed.
