Report: One in Three CA Teens Doesn’t Participate in Physical Education

A new policy brief just released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has found that one-third of California teens don’t participate in P.E. classes at school. In fact, the percentage of children taking P.E. drops with age, the study found — from 95% at age 12 to only 23% at age 17.

How did this happen?

Budget cuts to physical education programs are one culprit, researchers say, and exemptions that allow high schoolers to skip 2 years of P.E. are another. The brief’s authors recommend increased funding for P.E. and maintenance of existing programs to combat this issue.

On a related note, data about physical fitness just were updated on kidsdata.org. The data show that, depending on the gender and grade, about 25% to 40% of California students meet the state’s standards. And, although students in all grades have made gains over the past decade, the percentage of students meeting all fitness standards has largely leveled off in recent years. See our blog post on these fitness results.

Posted by kidsdata.org

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