Background/Purpose The South Carolina Student Health and Fitness Act of 2005 required elementary schools to provide all students with 150 minutes of physical activity (PA) per week including 60 minutes of physical education (PE) by a specialist. The intent was to increase physical education time to 90 minutes over subsequent years and to insure that every student had at least 30 minutes a day of PA time. The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation and sustainability of the policy across three years.
Method The data sources for this study were school reports (approximately 600 per year) submitted at the end of each of three school years (2006, 2007, and 2008) and the three annual legislative reports. The reports documented the extent to which the schools were in compliance with the act and described what the schools were actually doing to meet the requirements.
Analysis/Results Data were analyzed and compared across three years using descriptive statistics. The number of schools that met the combined PE/PA requirement was low across all years (64%, 70%, and 59%). The requirement to send fitness reports home to parents followed the same pattern (67%, 74%, and 65%). Adherence to other components of the policy and how the schools were implementing the requirements is described.
Conclusions Implementation of the SC Act and other PA policy relies on establishing specific policy, training teachers, facilitating scheduling strategies for administrators, and financial resources to conduct the program. Sustainability will depend on continued funding and accountability.
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