Senate Bill 42 (Updated 04/28/2006)

On Friday, April 28th, the State Board of Education passed a rule on first reading relating to physical activity in middle and junior high school. In layman’s language the rule will require local boards of trustees to adopt a policy on middle and junior high school physical activity and how students may meet it. Most importantly the rule does NOT contain any requirement in terms of minutes, semesters, days, etc. It simply leaves the establishment of a policy to the local level. While there has been much rumor in the field that a semester each year or thirty minutes daily or 135 minutes a week has already been passed by the state, this is simply NOT true. There is currently no state requirement for middle school physical activity, and there is none introduced by this rule. If school districts, in fact, decide to adopt a local policy requiring middle school physical activity (the policy may be no physical activity requirement), the rule does allow for substitutions as determined at the local level to include participation in private league or club-sponsored activities as approved by the superintendent. Finally, the rule also allows any local physical activity requirement to be met by a TEKS-based physical education class or a TEKS-based physical activity. The second and final reading and adoption of this rule will not occur until July. However, I encourage you to become actively involved in your district now to make sure a local policy is not put in place based on inaccurate information. Once this rule becomes a part of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) and districts are required to adopt a policy, it will be incumbent upon you to become actively involved in that process. You want to do your part to ensure your local board does not enact a policy that could negatively impact the opportunity for students to be a part of your program. Most districts will probably put into policy what they are doing now and go about doing business as usual, but you should monitor that process carefully. From the beginning of the filing of Senate Bill 42 last spring through this SBOE rule writing process, TMEA has carefully monitored this activity, worked feverishly at the Capitol to impact bill language, and testified to prevent any policy from negatively impacting your students and your program while still supporting the spirit of SB42. In light of the fact that the outcome potentially could have been state-mandated physical activity all year every year, I believe the end result is the best we could hope for. Give me a call if you would like to discuss further. Robert Floyd Executive Director