OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma lawmaker is proposing a measure that would require students starting in third grade to undergo an annual fitness assessment in an effort to gauge how healthy children are and to aid state agencies in shaping health policy around those outcomes.
House Bill 2257, authored by state Rep. Danny Sterling, R-Tecumseh, would require schools to test factors that have been “identified as essential to overall health and function,” including aerobic capacity, body composition, muscular strength, endurance and flexibility based on standards “specific to a student’s age and gender and based on the physical fitness level required for good health.”
Districts would be required to provide the results to a parent or guardian.
The performance data also would be submitted anonymously to the State Department of Health to help that agency assess the effectiveness of its health programs and to develop recommendations for modifications to physical education and wellness programs.
The bill also would require the state education and health departments to analyze the performance results for each school district to determine if there’s any correlation between fitness, student obesity, student attendance levels, student academic achievement levels, student disciplinary problems and school meal programs.
A report would be required to be submitted to the governor, who then may establish “recognition programs” to acknowledge districts and schools that have “most improved” in their physical fitness assessments.
Sterling did not respond to requests for comment.
State Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, said the state’s physical fitness standards are “awful” and more needs to be done to improve student health.
However, when Sterling previously unsuccessfully ran a similar bill, it was very controversial, Waldron said.
Waldron said legislators on both sides of the aisle had concerns about ensuring the privacy of student health records. He said there was an “ick factor” to providing children’s health data to help a state agency shape wellness campaigns. And, there were fears that the results could be used for “fat shaming,” he said.
“Conservatives tended to not like the data privacy problems, and liberals tended not to like the body image questions,” Waldron said.
He said he’d support legislation to improve physical fitness if it provided support for schools, but he wants to know what consequences districts would face if their schools don’t measure up to the fitness standards. He also fears that the bill would add another layer of bureaucracy to “an already strained system.”
Waldron said Oklahoma’s obesity rates are an issue, but there might not be a direct causation between obesity, attendance or academic achievement. Obesity, for instance, could be caused by lack of access to healthy foods or grocery stores at home, family poverty, junk food being served in school vending machines or the need to provide healthier lunches, he said.
“Probably what we need to do is understand all those complex factors and deal with it comprehensively rather than try to approach it from a single aspect,” Waldron said. “A lot of it is also beyond our state’s control because it has to do with the way families are changing.”
In an email, Lauren Loucks, the executive director of the Oklahoma Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, or OAHPERD, said the group supports the work of teachers, schools and research as it is implemented in quality physical education and health programs.
“Bill 2257 may serve as a baseline to gain insight into student fitness, healthy weight, academic achievement, classroom behavior and student attendance,” Loucks said. “OAHPERD supports inclusive assessment, including children with disabilities.”
Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhinews.com.
