Our Process
We completed our persuasive writing unit by writing letters to our Superintendent, School Board President, Governor, and/or President regarding interests and issues that impact 2000+ people. This process required evaluating sources, selecting evidence, connecting our evidence to prove our claims, peer editing and mailing our letters.
Shortly after, we saw an infographic on Reddit that tied to some of our topics.
We evaluated the sources to determine if this infographic was even valid. We used a trick called the "ABC" test.
Once we verified the information, we were surprised (and frustrated) to find that Pennsylvania is one of the few states that doesn't protect recess for students.
We learned that Representative Otten of PA established HB 1949 in the 2019 session. It did not make it out of committee. We believe this is in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other priorities that needed to be focused on first.
To summarize the bill had two major parts:
elementary students get 40 minutes of free-play recess
secondary students get 20 minutes of free-place recess
We are a middle school (6-8) and we were not sure if we were "elementary" or "secondary" - so we first asked our Principal and then we verified the PA School Code.
We researched Pennsylvania's ranking (according to US News), our reading proficiency levels by grade 4, our mathematics proficiency levels by grade 4, our suspension and data rates -- all to conclude that Pennsylvania students would be more successful in school and life if we had recess built into our schedule.
We contacted Representative Otten's office, and her staff shared with us the names of Representatives that co-signed the original bill. We compiled those names with their respective parties and checked to see who was still in office.
We also researched who is currently on the PA House's Education Committee. We asked questions of staff members for both the Chair (Representative Sonney) and the Minority Chair (Representative Longietti)
We found evidence to support three buckets:
The mental wellness of students
The academic growth and achievement
The physical well-being of students
We revised HB 1949 to reflect what we feel is a better set up for students in K-12.
We decided on a nickname for the bill to help with marketing and social media "Mind the G.A.P."
We set up a meeting with Representative Brooks, our local representative.
We have been researching to make sure we have the best information on why this bill is critical for students in K-12. We are preparing a presentation for Representative Brooks and plan to reach out to other local representatives next and members of the Education Committee.
We have created two petitions to gather more data to support that students and families believe in the important of recess for us and future students.
We virtually attended the House of Representatives joint committee hearing (Education and Human Services) on mental health on Monday, May 24.
We are creating a social campaign to inform people. Our hashtag is #MindtheGAPinPA.
We made a commercial for our school news broadcast & to share with people around the world!
On June 2, we met with Ms. Victoria, a Plum constituent who has experience working with state legislators to get bills passed into laws. We walked her through our presentation and ideas and she gave us tips for for what to improve!
We have emailed a lot of Principals in surrounding districts, and still searching up emails to send more emails!
Our superintendent shared our campaign to the district too!
We heard from Mr. Miller, our former physical education teacher, about our bill. He's going to come to a meeting next week and help us too!
On June 10, we met with Representative Brooks (R) and presented our data and research. The presentation and questions/answers took over an hour!
In late August, we received a copy of legislation from Representative Brooks's office for our approval. We responded in early September with some suggestions. The students expressed concern that there were a few areas that need clarification so there was no confusion. We had ultimately worked with the bill writers to settle on wording.
In late September, we received word Representative Otten (D) was potentially looking to co-sponsor our bill! This is exciting because she played a role in the original recess bill years ago that never made it to through the education committee. This would also mean our bill is a bipartisan effort!
Representative Otten (D) suggested a new provision that students shall not be permitted to replace free-play recess or lunch time with additional coursework or instruction “unless requested by the student.”
In early October, after some debate about the suggestion, students in our committee suggested “unless requested by a junior or senior student.” They believe this will help prevent a student from being forced to give up a class by their parents, because juniors and seniors are becoming legal adults and decision makers.
In mid-October, we contacted EVERY member of the House Education Committee to tell them about our bill. We encourage them to bring it to the House floor!
In early November, Representative Brooks introduced our bill as House Bill 2063 and has been referred to the House Education Committee.
We took time to send several messages to Representative Sonney asking him to move on our bill and have the committee vote on it.
In mid-November, we wrote scripts and surveys to continue to create educational awareness pieces of why this 30-minute break is critical for students' success.
In March, we reviewed recommendations from PSEA and PSBA. We agreed unanimously to add the following provision: “A school entity shall not reduce instructional time in subjects that are not assessed by a state assessment as defined in Section 1502-I of this Act in order to provide recess, unless instructional time is also equitably reduced in subjects assessed by a state assessment.”
We did not agree with other suggestions to have recess be only K-5 or to allow it to be taken away for punitive reasons.
Our Research
