School-aged kids across California will have a mandatory 30-minute recess break starting with the 2024-25 school year under a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law.
On school days with early dismissal, students will be entitled to at least a 15-minute recess break.
Under the new law, educators will also no longer be able to withhold the outdoor break recess as a form of disciplinary action.
Educators will only be allowed to do this “unless there is an immediate threat to the physical safety of the pupil or the physical safety of one or more of the pupil’s peers,” the bill’s text said.
The bill turned law was introduced by Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat representing cities in Los Angeles. Orange and San Bernardino counties
“As California finally emerges from the pandemic and its impacts, we are seeing some of the lingering effects on children’s social-emotional development play out in the form of behavioral disruptions which 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 offered by recess are more important now than ever.”
