On Friday, the Governor signed our initiative, the Right to Play Every Day bill, SB654, into law, effective immediately! Public Act 102-0357 is great news for IL students in grades K-5. Every school should now be providing a minimum of 30 minutes of unstructured play time (can be broken up into 15 minute segments) and schools MAY NOT withhold recess as a punishment to students.

Research is clear that recess has academic, social-emotional and health benefits for students! We’ve created this recess FAQ sheet for you should you have any further questions about what the law says and how schools should implement it.

IL-FPS wants to build on this win and bring 6-8th graders into the mix.

And we want our state to start addressing one of the root causes for why we need to mandate play time at all: the pressure on public schools from high-stakes test-based accountability policy. Testing and test prep have pushed developmentally-appropriate education to the side in many schools in our state.

Make a donation to IL-FPS today to show your support of this crucial work and help us keep going past 2021!

For some schools, this law may mean a significant schedule shift. If you are concerned about how/whether your district is complying with this law, let us know at [email protected].