The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required school districts to approve a local school wellness policy by July 2006 making this the first federal legislation requiring schools districts to establish a goal for physical activity and that could focus on physical education. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of having a physical education teacher on the committee that developed the policy. Every district in Iowa was contacted by mail to complete a brief survey and submit a copy of their local school wellness policy, 298 districts responded. Physical education (75%) and health teachers (64%) were not required committee members but served on the majority of committees. Policies were assessed in two ways, whether the policy contained the 7 federally mandated components of goals for nutrition education, physical activity and other school-based wellness activities, assurances that school meals are not more restrictive than allowed by law, nutrition guidelines for all foods available on campus, a plan to measure implementation of the policy, and a monitor. Second, a numeric value was assigned to the characteristics of each goal, nutrition guidelines and assessment plan that was summed (M = 54.5, sd=28.4). A discriminant analysis with physical educator on the committee or not as the independent variable and the policy points for the nutrition education, physical activity, and other school wellness goals, guidelines for all foods, assurances, plan for implementing, and monitor as dependent variables predicted group membership successfully (75.2%). The Wilks' Lambda was .946, ÷2 (7) =12.5, p=.08. The guidelines for all foods available on campus (.76), physical activity goal (.66) and nutrition education goal (.59) were the most important factors in the discriminant function. Policies were predictably influenced by committee membership. Having a PE teacher on the committee would logically influence the physical activity goal. A PE goal appeared as all or part of the physical activity goal in 85% of the policies regardless of committee membership, however a PE teacher on the committee did influence the content of the PE goal (3.1 versus 2.4 goal points, e.s. =0.4) and specific aspects of the PE goal [more minutes of PE per week (e.s. =0.4), all grades K-12 (e.s. =0.32)]. The PE teacher appeared to make a positive difference for the after-school physical activity subgoals (e.s. =0.42) and nutrition education (e.s. =0.36) goal. Physical educators had a positive influence on in school wellness policies. Keyword(s): nutrition, obesity issues, physical education PK-12