Despite alarming obesity rates among school-aged children and a state requirement that all students get some level of structured exercise every week, many New York City schools do not provide physical education classes, or do not provide them as often as they should, according to an audit released on Tuesday by the city comptroller.
None of the 31 elementary schools throughout the city that officials visited — of about 700 total — were in full compliance with the state guidelines on physical education, the audit found.
It also found that the city’s Department of Education had not filed physical education plans with the state since 1982, in spite of a state recommendation that the plans be reviewed and updated every seven years. In response, officials in the department said they were working on a new plan, though its final draft was not expected until next year.
“The D.O.E. is failing gym,” the comptroller, John C. Liu, said.
Education Department officials said in the audit that they do not monitor whether students are getting as much exercise in school as they should, and said it is each principal’s responsibility to make sure the requirements are met, much like it is the principal’s role to supervise compliance in every other instructional area. The audit points out that while students must take state tests on math, English and other subjects, there is no similar mechanism to monitor the schools’ physical education programs.
In a statement, Barbara Morgan, a spokeswoman for the education department, said the department has been working to combat obesity among students. “We know we have more work to do in this area, and the comptroller’s recommendations coincide with our ongoing efforts to improve the quality if physical education instruction in our schools,” like better explaining to principals what the requirements are, she said.
Auditors visited a sample number of schools throughout the five boroughs that serve students from pre-K to 8th grade, to determine whether the physical education classes they offered were held as frequently as required: every day for kindergarten to 3rd grade, for at least 120 minutes a week; three times a week for grades 4 to 6, also for a minimum of 120 minutes; and at least 90 minutes a week for grades 7 and 8.
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Nine of the schools -- five in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan and three in Queens -- offered some type of physical education classes, just not as often as the state says they should. There were also discrepancies between how much physical education school officials told the auditors their students received and how much of it appeared in the database that stores students’ transcripts. For example, while officials at P.S. 96 in East Harlem said students in grades 6 through 8 got two periods of physical education per week, the database showed one-third of the students in those grades scheduled for just one period. As a result, auditors said, they were unsure which information was correct or should be relied upon.
The audit says part of the reason schools do not comply with the state requirements is that their principals are not aware of them. But there may be other reasons, like lack of space because many buildings are overcrowded and lack of money after five consecutive years of budget cuts.
P.S. 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, whose building is already operating over capacity, does not have a gym. P.S. 47 in the Soundview section of the Bronx has a gym, but no physical education teacher on staff because the school could no longer afford one, the audit says.
Education department officials said the city is making connections between the schools and the parks department and other private recreation centers in an effort to find exercise space for schools that do not have it. They also said that the new physical education plan that is being developed will include recommendations that schools schedule classroom-based physical activities, which are meant to complement exercise classes, but are not being used by all of its elementary schools.