American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

Advocacy Activities in SDA States in 2010

The Southern District AAHPERD, and the 13 states comprising  the District, have been very busy with advocacy issues over the last year.  Below are some of the highlights from the  District.

Southern District  AAHPERD Advocacy:
  Karen Dowd and Sandra Sims are facilitating a preconvention  workshop on advocacy report cards in Greensboro, North Carolina.  In  addition, an advocacy session was presented at the Southern District AAHPERD  Student Leadership Conference at East Tennessee State University in September  of 2010. 

Alabama:
ASAHPERD will host a Board of Directors meeting in our capital city,  Montgomery, in March  2011.  After our BOD meeting, we will have an Advocacy Day where we will  introduce ourselves to the new Senators and Representatives.  Each  legislator will be given a packet of information on ASAHPERD’s mission and  vision for Alabama. 

Georgia:
  HB  229 Student  Health and Physical Education Act requires an annual  fitness assessment once a school year for students in grades one through 12, to  be conducted only during a physical education course.  In addition, the State Board of Education unanimously approved the new Georgia  Performance Standards for Physical Education. Statewide training will occur  during the 2009-2010 school year with implementation during the 2010-2011  school year. The State Board of Education also unanimously approved the  new Georgia Health Education Performance Standards in February 2010.
 

North Carolina:
  The North Carolina General Assembly continued its progressive reform to  improve the school’s physical education and health programs with passage of HB  1757 Fitness Testing in Schools. If signed by the governor, the bill would  accompany HB 901 Honors Courses in Healthful Living Classes, which prepares  college-bound high school students for highly skilled careers in allied health,  exercise science, education and public health. HB 1757 provides a mandate for  evidence-based fitness testing in K-8 schools.
  “This is a huge step in the right direction. Fitness testing will give  us the first clear and comprehensive perspective of childhood obesity, so students,  parents, teachers, school administrators, and policy makers can better  understand the problem and allocate resources where they are needed most,” said  North Carolina Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physical Education, Recreation,  and Dance (NCAAHPERD) Executive Director Dr. Ron Morrow.
  Many schools are expected to comply with the new mandate through  participation in NCAAHPERD’s In-school Prevention of Obesity and Disease  (IsPOD), a multi-faceted obesity intervention and prevention program. IsPOD includes  FitnessGRAM™, a fitness testing system used to measure the five layers of  physical fitness, generate individualized student and parent reports, and  submit data to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics. (The  government research center is analyzing the data and will make it available in  the future). More than half of the state’s schools are already participating in  IsPOD; 95 school districts are scheduled to begin participating by the end of  2010.
  HB 1757 and HB 901 cost the state and taxpayers zero. Schools can choose  to offer honors health courses using existing staff and resources. The  Department of Public Instruction has developed an honors level curriculum for  one health course.
 

South Carolina:
  South Carolina AHPERD interviewed the two candidates running  for Superintendent of Schools.  Questions were asked regarding health,  dance and physical education issues.  Answers were posted on the web site  so voters could form an opinion before election day.

Texas:
  Texas AHPERD is a founding member  of the Partnership for a Healthy Texas. This group of 60+ non-profits and state  agencies work together to focus their advocacy efforts on specifically  identified issues of concern to all groups. This group has met several times  during 2010 to develop the following legislative agenda.

 
   
     
• Improve school health and increase accountability by:
     
       
• Physical Education and Physical Activity
       
         
• Increasing the  usefulness of FitnessGram data by requiring reporting of de-identified,  individual fitness data to TEA allowing the Agency to accurately correlate  fitness data with academic data, and make that data available to parents.
         
• Implementing  national standards for physical education including minutes per week, class  size and certified teachers for grades K-12.
         
• Prohibiting  schools from withholding physical activity, PE or recess time as a consequence  for classroom behavior or academic remediation.
       
       
• Health Education
       
         
• Making health  education a requirement for high school graduation.
       
     
     
• Accountability:  Improving  accountability by:
     
       
• Requiring that  yearly SHAC reports to school boards include information on how campuses have  incorporated coordinated school health into their campus improvement plans.
       
• Recognizing  schools that are meeting and exceeding minimum standards for implementing  coordinated school health.
     
     
• School  Nutrition
     
       
• Maximizing  opportunities to improve the Texas school nutrition environment through the  federal Child Nutrition Act reauthorization.
     
   
   
• Built Environment
   
     
• Support physical activity in the community environment  by supporting “complete streets” policies to encourage walking and bicycling  for health, transportation and recreation.
   
   
• Early Childhood
   
     
• Improve nutrition  and physical activity in early childhood programs, including support for  following current Dietary Guidelines for Americans in childcare settings.