I recently had to double-check the report’s date. American schools have been quietly killing recess to focus on test scores—and pediatricians are warning it’s a mistake, by Laura Ungar, which began in the late 1980s. But there it was, 2026. Children are still not getting the academic breaks they need to be healthy. Weren’t the Pediatric reports enough in 2012?
How ironic that The New York Times just published a report on how poor test scores are. The report is entitled, Why U.S. Test Scores Are in a ‘Generation-Long Decline,’ and maybe the authors could have considered the loss of recess! If test scores were going up with NCLB, and that’s debatable, it was likely due to teaching to the test.
The end of recess escalated with NCLB. High-stakes testing ruled, and recess was looked upon as trivial. Children, we were told, according to those who never understood or ignored children’s needs, needed more seatwork, even kindergartners.
Children are still denied supervised, unstructured recess, where they can chill on the playground however they want, reasonably, without being told what to do. The loss of recess was one of the first school reforms that should have been a clue to Americans that all was not right with the way our democratic public schools were being run.
Parents have fought over the years to get their children some recess. Now, it’s preposterous that, after all their work to reinstate school recess, it’s still a problem: children still don’t get recess!
Parents should not have even had to fight for recess. It was bizarre that anyone could have thought children didn’t need a break. Below, I will list possible solutions, and I hope you can come up with some, too, that will finally address this terrible loss for children.
Without recess, school becomes a workhouse. This idea that students must be occupied every minute with seatwork, adult-assigned school work that keeps a child’s nose to the grindstone, is born from the standards movement to destroy public education.
The AP also recently reported: Pediatrics group issues new guidance on recess for the first time in 13 years. In this video, a pediatrician states, “You’ve got to take breaks between concentrated bouts of learning in order for the brain to hold that information and store it.” I wish he had leaned into letting children have supervised, unstructured breaks to do what they want. Instead, the video shows a child doing an organized obstacle course hall walk. These are fine, but they are not recess!
Adults still micromanage children in the name of high-stakes standardized testing after all these years. Denying children adequate breaks during the day has never improved scores! That’s because it doesn’t work. It’s detrimental. It harms children academically and socially and damages their health.
It destroys a child’s natural curiosity and their ability to be imaginative. If a child doesn’t get time to think about their world and their relationships, if adults do all the thinking for them all day, and they never get to think on their own, how will they ever develop well?
How many children struggle with ADHD and don’t get adequate breaks? How many children have obesity issues? In some schools, even today, children who struggle miss out on recess while their higher-achieving peers get it as a reward! Yet the children who are acting out in class or not doing well on assignments especially need recess!
Anthony D. Pellegrini, Professor of Early Education at the University of Georgia, wrote extensively about the research surrounding the critical importance of recess for child development. He wrote a book called Recess: It’s Role in Education and Development, a book that should be a staple in every early childhood education program. He discusses the history of recess in American schools, its role in social development, its relationship to gender differences, rough-and-tumble play, and children’s imagination in creating games.
Also, importantly, Pellegrini describes the implications of recess for a child’s cognitive development, and recess is no trivial matter. Without supervised, unstructured recess, children may not be doing their best work. Pellegrini performed controlled experiments and found the children performed better after a break and their attention decreased without one.
Organized Physical Education (P.E.) is important, too, but it’s not recess. And outside, privatized-like recess groups like Playworks, where school districts pay for recess, are like organized P.E. (in fact, it’s a worry they could replace P.E. teachers), where individuals come into the school and guide children in outdoor games (again, it’s organized and not recess).
Nor do Brain Breaks, letting children have five or ten minutes of an indoor game, or be able to move to get the wiggles out, adequately replace recess. Some adults act like it’s so. Brain Breaks might be called for sometimes, but recess is the Mother Lode of activity for children in school.
For years, some badly informed adults have absolutely refused to let go of micromanaging everything a child does in school, including recess, and sadly, it not only holds a child back in how they learn, but it’s also hurting America’s children’s health.
Here are some possible solutions to turn the tide to ensure there is recess for every child in public school.
There is some good news. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1481 in April, doubling daily recess for public school students in K-5 from 20 to 40 minutes. This is mandated and will begin in the 2026-2027 school year. Let’s see states follow his lead! And let’s hope school boards choose to do what’s right.
Universities
All educators including school administrators who come out of the university, should be required to take a class highlighting the importance of recess, what it involves and how to keep children safe. The following books to explore would be helpful:
Some progressive school districts are looking at how to implement recess breaks for middle and high school. It’s important to understand a child’s development and how recess helps academically, socially, and also with their health.
PTA Support
The school PTA is a powerful influence on the school board and enough PTA support and communication to the state legislators may help. Collect all the research that shows the importance of recess and share it with others.
Principals
Principals, with the support of the PTA, must emphasize the critical importance of recess to a child’s health. Work with parents and educators to support several recess breaks every day.
Teachers
Work with parents and the principal and administrators to ensure every child gets recess. Do not punish misbehavior with recess denial. If a child acts out dangerously on the playground or in school they need help.
Ensure that every child gets authentic recess break. It was ridiculous when they eliminated recess and it even worse after all these years and all the attempts by parents to put recess back that pediatricians are still having to tell Americans that students should get recess!
The following books are just a few to explore would be helpful to insist to those in charge that America’s kids need recess:
- Recess: Its Role in Education and Development by Anthony D. Pellegrini
- What Happened to Recess and Why are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten by Susan Ohanian
- Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown, M.D.
- Why Play?: How to Make Play an Essential Part of Early Childhood Education by Rae Pica
I appreciate other suggestions, especially for the caregivers who have fought for recess. In addition, if you’re interested in reading more about this topic, type in the search square on my blog RECESS and many more posts about it will pop up. It’s frustrating to write so much about a topic and watch it return to being lost.
What kind of country have we become when we don’t allow children to play?
Reference
Cain, C.M., Paris, F. and Mervosh, S. (2026, May 13). Why U.S. Test Scores Are in a ‘Generation-Long Decline.’ The New York Times, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/upshot/test-scores-school-districts-us.html
Leave a Reply