Recess Now Mandatory for Dallas ISD Elementary Schools

Dallas Independent School District elementary school students will now get to enjoy recess every day after a vote Tuesday's board meeting.

Dallas ISD trustees made playtime mandatory on elementary school campuses during a vote at Tuesday's board meeting. Students in Pre-K through fifth grade will get at least 20 minutes a day of recess for the rest of this school year. That goes up to 30 minutes a day next school year.

Teachers also can't withhold recess from students as punishment.

Texas Christian University researchers are studying a link between recess and character development. Dr. Debbie Rhea, who works on the project, said kids are too stressed in the classroom and need recess to help decompress.

"You can really take in a lot of information and gather it, reboot your brain, get your brain ready for learning again, or even take stuff that's in the classroom and bring it out and learn through play about what you just learned in the classroom," she said.

For months, a group of Dallas parents had been pushing the school board to vote on mandatory recess. Prior to Tuesday's vote, the amount of recess varied from school to school.

The parents argued recess is a major part of a child's learning development, but over the years the break time was slowly disappearing as teachers would focus more on meeting new testing standards.