01/24/2009

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-liphys2512353874jan25,0,4295372.sto...

BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER

Despite a childhood obesity crisis and state regulations on the amount of physical education students receive, most elementary schools on Long Island and across the state are not providing enough P.E. classes, according to two studies and educators who cite a lack of time, space and teachers along with competing demands of academics.

Experts say the state fails to enforce its regulations on physical education - which have been largely unchanged for 70 years - and the state says it looks into noncompliant districts only when parents complain or schools request help.

Ronald Feingold, dean of Adelphi University's school of education and someone who has long been active in national and statewide physical education organizations, said he estimates 90 percent of New York schools are not in compliance.

"I think they're cheating children," said Dr. David Satcher, U.S. surgeon general from 1998 to 2002 and founder of Action for Healthy Kids, which aims to address childhood obesity. "I think the schools should be reminded that children who are physically fit do well academically. When schools decide they don't have time for physical education, they're really defeating their own purpose."

A teacher's union-sponsored survey last year of 628 P.E. teachers statewide found that 20 percent said children in grades K-3 were getting their required 120 minutes of P.E. per week.

Audit finds noncompliance

In December, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released an audit showing that one of 20 districts examined statewide offered the mandated amount. Three Long Island districts - Mineola, Commack and Smithtown - were included, and none were in full compliance.

Educators don't dispute the value of gym but say there is only so much time in the day as they confront mandates such as the federal legislation known as No Child Left Behind.

"If you're going to give more time for P.E.," said Lawrence Superintendent John Fitzsimons, "guess what, you've got to take away from something else."

With 32 percent of American children and adolescents overweight or obese, it's crucial schools offer more P.E. time, Satcher said.

The state Education Department requires that students in grades K-3 participate in P.E. every day, for a total of at least 120 minutes weekly. In grades 4-6, students must have at least 120 minutes spread over three days a week. In grades 7-12, students must have P.E. at least three times a week one semester and twice a week in the other semester.

Starting this school year, the department is requiring schools outside New York City to include weight and body mass index - a reliable indicator of total body fat - on students' health records.

But the rules do little to combat childhood obesity when there are no consequences for not complying, experts say.

"There's no teeth in the law and there's no money to support the law," said Dr. Reginald Washington, chief medical officer for the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver. "There are no tests and there's no punishment."

Feingold, of Adelphi, said the regulations, which state officials say have been largely unchanged for 70 years, have always been essentially ignored. "It's only been highlighted in the last 10 years or so because of the obesity crisis," Feingold said.

Jonathan Burman, a state Education Department spokesman, said officials expect districts to follow the law. About twice a month, state officials learn of a noncompliant district through a parent's complaint or a school asking for help, he said. "We find that it is best to work with them to win compliance," he said. "The goal is not to punish schools, but rather to work with them to help meet the state's requirements."

Smithtown Superintendent Ed Ehmann said the biggest hurdles schools face are space and personnel. Many local officials say they don't have the gym capacity to schedule daily P.E. classes for elementary school students.

New York schools are not alone. "It's happening in every state," said Dr. John Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "The laws are being passed and schools are trying to get out of it saying they don't have enough space."

Survey's results

In a survey last year by the New York State United Teachers union, 11 percent of 628 P.E. teachers said their districts' K-3 students receive P.E. every day.

Of the teachers surveyed, 152 were from Long Island. Fifty-nine percent said their K-3 students did not get P.E. daily, and 22 percent said their schools met the 120-minute weekly goal.

Results for grades 4-6 were only slightly better. In grades 7-12, however, 69 percent of teachers statewide - 65 percent on Long Island - said their districts met regulations.

Barbara Barosa, a P.E. teacher at Phillips Avenue Elementary in Riverhead and the district's teacher union president, said meeting state rules would require hiring more P.E. teachers. Riverhead lost two P.E. teachers this year - an indication, she said, that physical education mandates are not a priority.

On a recent morning, the "Rocky" theme song blared through the Wantagh Elementary gym as about 20 fourth-graders rotated through stations, some stretching their quadriceps - the class "muscle of the month."

The music stopped and students sat in clusters at teacher Anthony Ciuffo's feet. He told the class to find their pulses and they touched fingers to their necks or wrists. "By now your heart should be beating a little faster," he said.

Ciuffo and another P.E. teacher try to pack heart-pumping activities into 40-minute periods at Wantagh, where there is one large gym and a smaller one.

But by giving students an average of two physical education classes each week, totaling about 80 minutes, the school falls short of state regulations. Complying, Ciuffo said, would require another gym and another teacher.

Joanne Hamilton, a P.E. teacher at Sunrise Drive Elementary in Sayville, said the district is in compliance for grades 5 to 12 but not in the lower grades, where requirements are daily and compete with No Child Left Behind mandates.

"They don't have the space or the staff for daily physical education K to 3, especially in today's fiscal crisis," she said. "What good is it if, due to a lack of physical activity, you end up an unhealthy adult but you can read and write?"

In Lawrence, Fitzsimons said the balance is achieved through "organized play" supervised by a P.E. teacher during recess. However, Burman said recess, regardless of who supervises, does not count toward compliance.

School officials acknowledge children need more P.E. time and are trying to find creative ways. Even if the activities don't count toward state compliance, they say, students can learn lifelong fitness habits.

P.E. alternatives

Twice a week before school starts at Setauket Elementary, children can take an optional P.E. class with Jen Lang, a mother of two girls there and co-owner of Fitness Together, a Port Jefferson gym.

On Monday mornings before school starts at Wilson Elementary in Rockville Centre, P.E. teacher Alicia Miller leads students on an optional mile run, followed by breakfast and a nutrition lesson.

Tricia Restucci, an East Setauket mother of three, said districts should not be allowed to skimp on P.E. regulations. A heart attack and stroke survivor, Restucci found out two years ago her children's Three Village elementary school wasn't in P.E. compliance and started pressing district officials and writing to politicians.

Last month, after a district committee began looking into how to comply, a pilot program was launched at Minnesauke Elementary, where Restucci's son is now in sixth grade. Don Webster, in charge of physical education in the district, said on days when students don't have P.E., classroom teachers will find ways to provide an additional 30 minutes of physical activity throughout the week. That can include exercise breaks and outdoor walks.

A similar process and solutions helped upstate district Homer became the lone system in DiNapoli's audit to be in full compliance. Classroom teachers, directed by P.E. teachers, oversee movement breaks. A walking program is tracked by classroom teachers who report progress to P.E. staff, Superintendent Douglas Larison said.

"It's something I think that people became lazy about over time," he said. "There's a lot of other pressures. But when somebody brings it to your attention that you're out of compliance, you need to do something about it."