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The House Health Education and Welfare Committee is expected to vote on April 27, 2016 to pass House Bill H7644 which would ensure that all RI children in grades K-5 are getting at least 20 minutes of recess and that recess cannot be taken away for disciplinary reasons.
Parent voices have been critical in this work to elevate the importance of recess to a child’s school day. Make no mistake – it is because of parent letters and emails that this issue has been getting attention. You can help these bills pass by writing to your legislators and asking them to support these bills. Questions about why we need a law? Visit https://parentsacrossri.org/protecting-recess-and-free-play-time/
You can read these bills here –
Senate Bill https://parentsacrossri.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/s2669.pdf
House Bill https://parentsacrossri.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/h7644.pdf
What can you do?
1. A simple letter to your legislators that states something like the following would go a long way:
“Please support children’s right to free play by supporting House Bill H7644 and Senate Bill S2669. We need legislators to ensure that kids are getting what science says they need: at least 20 minutes of free play recess without the risk of losing it for disciplinary reasons.”
(the underlined part is important because RIDE has said this shouldn’t be part of the recess rules.)
You should write to your house representatives and senator as we need both houses of State Congress to pass this legislation. If you don’t know who your legislators are, you can look it up here: https://sos.ri.gov/vic/
A link to email addresses for all Representatives is here http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Email/RepEmailListDistrict.asp
and a link for Senators is here: http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Email/SenEmailListDistrict.asp
2. You can email the House HEW Committee Chair, rep-mcnamara@rilegislature.gov thanking him for getting the bill out of committee, and ask the Senate Education Committee Chair to do the same: sen-gallo@rilegislature.gov
3. You can also write to the Speaker of the House Rep-mattiello@rilegislature.gov and ask him to take the recess bill to a floor vote and the President of the Senate asking the same sen-paivaweed@rilegislature.gov
4. Last, you can also email the bill main sponsors to thank them for the legislation let them know you support them rep-fogarty@rilegislature.gov & sen-coyne@rilegislature.gov
update: we need more parent voices on this.
Please share and invite others to as well if you want to make recess a reality in Rhode Island. We have to let our legislators know that parents are watching what they do with this.
This bill is a simple tool to provide all children with the bare minimum free play as recommended by the American Academy of pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Rhode Island Kids Count.
https://www.change.org/p/m-teresa-paiva-weed-make-recess-a-reality-in-rhode-island-pass-recess-legislation-in-this-session