Board Policy IDB: Health and Physical Education

1. Health Education

All students in grades K-12 are required to participate in a comprehensive health and physical education program that includes the following:

1. Alcohol and other drug use

2. Disease prevention

3. Environmental health

4. Nutrition

5. Personal health

6. Sex education/AIDS education

7. Safety

8. Mental health

9. Growth and development

10. Consumer health

11. Community health

12. Health careers

13. Family living

14. Motor skills

15. Physical fitness

16. Lifetime sports

17. Outdoor education

18. Fitness assessment

Sex and AIDS education is further addressed in Board policy IDBA, Sex Education.

1. School Health Index (SHI)

All schools in the DeKalb County School District will conduct the School Health Index for Physical Activity, Healthy Eating and a Tobacco-Free Lifestyle assessment annually. The tool will assess all 8 components of a coordinated school health program:

1. Health Education

2. Physical Education

3. Health Services

4. Nutrition Services

5. Counseling, Psychological and Social Services

6. Healthy School Environment

7. Health Promotion for Staff

8. Family/Community Involvement

9. Physical Education Program

The purpose of the physical education program is to combat the current obesity epidemic by creating an environment that promotes physical activity and establishes a healthy foundation that allows students to reach their full academic potential.

1. Elementary Schools

Every student in grades K through 5 is required to participate in a minimum of 90 contact hours of instruction in health and physical education.

1. Secondary Schools

Every student in grades 6 through 8 is required to complete a minimum of one nine-week rotation of health and a minimum of one nine-week rotation of physical education.

Every student in grades 9 through 12 is required to complete 0.5 Carnegie unit of Health and 0.5 Carnegie unit of Personal Fitness. Students are also required to take an additional 1.0 Carnegie unit in the area of Physical Education. One unit may be exempted through participation in a school-sponsored activity such as athletics, marching band, dance and/or JROTC. A student who validates full-year participation in these school-sponsored activities may substitute one unit of credit in any other elective area for the second unit of Physical Education. Activity hours will be accepted only for District sponsored activities. Team sports do not earn Carnegie units and shall not be included in a student’s schedule.

Carnegie unit will be granted using the following criteria:

1. 135 practice or activity hours are required to exempt 1 Carnegie unit of Physical Education.

2. 65 practice or activity hours are required to exempt 0.5 Carnegie of Physical Education.

3. Physical Fitness Standards

According to the National Association of Sports and Physical Education (NASPE), a physically educated person shall encompass but not be limited to the following standards:

Standard 1: Demonstrates competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities.

Standard 2: Demonstrates understanding of movement concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics as they apply to the learning and performance of physical activities.

Standard 3: Participates regularly in physical activity.

Standard 4: Achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness.

Standard 5: Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings.

Standard 6: Values physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction.

1. Annual Fitness Assessment

All certified physical education teachers are required to use Fitnessgram®, or another fitness assessment program approved by the State Department of Education, to annually test students enrolled in their physical education classes in grades 1 through 12. The individual results of the fitness assessment shall be reported to the parent or guardian of each student assessed and the aggregate results of the fitness assessments by school to the State Department of Education annually.