Task Force Seeks to Enhance P.E. in Illinois Schools  

Information on Illinois Enhanced Physical Education Task Force   

Regular physical activity is an essential tool for enhancing health and reducing risk for all-cause mortality and the development of many chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.  

Unfortunately, activity times in P.E. class are consistently low.  Activity time in a traditional P.E. class can be less than 37% of the total class time.  In a typical 30-minute K-6 grade class, students only engage in 11 minutes of physical activity.  Thus, a traditional P.E. class falls substantially short of the Healthy People 2010 objective of 50% activity time and contributes very little to ensuring students are meeting the 60 minutes per day of exercise recommended in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.  

To address this issue, the Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Public Health Institute convened the Illinois Enhanced PE Task Force to develop a strategy to promote the evidenced-based strategy of increasing the quality and duration of PE in Illinois schools.   

To learn more about the Illinois Enhanced P.E. Task Force click here. 

What Is Enhanced Physical Education?

New: Fact Sheet on Enhanced P.E.

The Illinois Public Health Institute recently released a Fact Sheet on Enhanced Physical Education. If you're not sure how enhanced P.E. compares with more traditional P.E. classes, click here to learn more.  

The Current State of Physical Education in Illinois  

A Fairly Bleak Picture 

Illinois is the only state in the nation that requires daily physical education for students.  However, the State can grant waivers to districts who argue they cannot provide daily P.E. classes.  Thus, many Illinois children are receiving little or no physical education.  

For the full article click here.

In the Spotlight: Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (IAHPERD)

IAHPERD members meet Illinois Governor, Pat Quinn.

In this special edition of the IAPO newsletter, we are focusing primarily on Objective 5 of the IAPO Roadmap which calls for increased "opportunities for safe and affordable physical activity in communities, senior centers, schools, child care settings and after-school programs."

The Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (IAHPERD) is a member of IAPO.  For decades, IAHPERD has been a leading voice and tireless advocate for increasing opportunities to be physical activity, espeically in schools. This month, we highlight some of IAHPERD's recent efforts.  

IAHPERD is a professional education association for teachers, administrators, researchers, coaches, students, and other allied professionals who are actively engaged in and dedicated to the promotion of quality health, physical education, recreation, dance, sport, and allied programming in public and private schools, colleges and universities, and community agencies throughout the state of Illinois.

Click here to read more. 

Larger Waistbands = Higher Healthcare Costs

Obesity - Not Aging - Balloons Health Care Costs

People who live longer tend to be healthier during their later years than shorter-lived people, so they tend to have lower medical costs. But there's an exception: Obese people are living longer, but much of their extra time is spent in ill health, and as a result, their annual medical bills are 42 percent higher than those of normal-weight people. In fact, the obesity epidemic has greatly increased the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, but has had little effect on mortality rates. Annual obesity-related health care costs are projected to rise by nearly $265 billion a year between 2008 and 2018, and much of the rise in Medicare spending will go toward treating obesity-related diseases. As one researcher noted, when it comes to chronic health problems, being obese is roughly equivalent to being aged by 20 years. 

For more information click here to read an article in Miller-McCune by David Stipp.

Highlights from the Healthy Schools Training 

Recognizing Healthy Schools in Illinois 

IAPO Eye on Policy

Upcoming Events

What's Happening Near You

We are pleased to pass on information about an exciting opportunity in July. The event is being sponsored by IAPO members and is directly related to the goals and objectives outlined in the IAPO Roadmap.

Reshaping Chicago Together

Save the date!  The University of Illinois at Chicago is hosting a summit entitled "Reshaping Chicago Together."  The city-wide summit will take place July 19, 2011 at the UIC Forum. The goal of the summit is to transform Chicago into one of the most physically active cities in the nation. Help make this vision a reality.  Click here for more information.  

If your organization has any upcoming events and would like IAPO to promote them in our monthly newsletter, please email kendall.stagg@iphionline.org.