May 6--OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma's youngest students already have a new assignment when they return to school next year: an extra hour of physical education.

Legislation signed Monday by Gov. Brad Henry requires that full-day kindergartners through fifth-graders have at least two hours of physical education each week.

That is double the one hour per week of exercise programs mandated two years ago for elementary students.

The governor, who proposed the measure in his State of the State address earlier this year, noted the increase in weight-related illnesses in Oklahoma's children before signing the bill.

"The obesity rate among Oklahoma's teenagers has tripled," Henry said. "Today, a full 15 percent of our teenagers are not just overweight, but in the category of obese."

The best thing Oklahoma parents and adults can do to combat childhood obesity, he said, is to set a good example.

The first hour of weekly physical education will remain solely for exercise programs.

However, the new law allows schools to

choose how to work the extra hour into the school day. For example, schools could include exercise programs, fitness breaks or recess.

Wellness and nutrition education also could be included.

The bill is designed so that the extra hour of physical education will not increase costs for schools or come at the expense of other subjects, Henry said.

"We want to do everything we can to encourage physical activity and education among our young children, but we don't want to crowd out important other areas like arts, music and those kinds of things," he said.

Tulsa Public Schools administrators said they had been hoping for more flexibility than what initially was proposed for new P.E. requirements.

Now that the new state requirements include the flexibility of having things such as recess and nutrition education count, TPS officials will reassess what changes district schools will have to make next year and what additional resources, including funding, might be needed, said Chief Academic Officer Mary Guinn.

"Tulsa Public Schools made a commitment to physical education three years ago when we started adding staff that were certified in P.E. We are absolutely meeting the current requirement of 60 minutes, and some of our schools are already providing 90 minutes," Guinn said.

Senate Bill 1186 by Sen. Mary Easley, D-Tulsa, and Rep. Ann Coody, R-Lawton, takes effect July 1.

"A lot of folks think this is just a cosmetic issue" among kids, said Ann Roberts, legis lative chairwoman for the Fit Kids Coalition, which championed the bill. "It's not that at all. It's about their health."

All of society has a role to play in improving Oklahoma's poor health rankings, said Michael Crutcher, state health commissioner.

"The only way to turn those rankings around is to start to address the risk factors or the preceding habits that lead to those bad health outcomes," he said.

State Superintendent Sandy Garrett also praised the measure, saying that it adds to the state's increasing academic standards.

"We know that if children are not healthy, don't come to school healthy and remain healthy, then they won't have as good a shot at finishing high school and completing the rigorous education that have planned for all of them," she said.

World staff writer Andrea Eger contributed to this story.

Angel Riggs (405) 528-2465

angel.riggs@tulsaworld.com

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