Be Active Schools

Be Active Schools (formerly Just Push Play) is a school-based intervention that offers schools and communities the resources needed to get kids moving and ultimately reverse declines in physical activity, boost academic performance, and diminish health risks.  Be Active Schools is designed to get school communities physically active, and to promote healthy, active lifestyles as the “norm,” not the exception. Since healthy students are successful students, physical activity at school is imperative. Be Active Schools also encourages schools to use funding to create changes to the built environment such as creating walking trails that can be shared with the community in addition to use during school by students and teachers.

Why Be Active Schools is Needed

• Nearly half of North Carolina’s children do not get the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity.
• Providing quality physical activity and education can decrease disruptive behavior in schools and improve students’ grades, concentration, test scores and self-esteem. (According to RTPnet’s Reference Guide on Obesity in NC, a service of the Public Information Network)
• Children are 600 times more likely to develop heart disease if they do not engage in physical activity on a regular basis.(2005 NC Youth Risk Surveillance Survey)
• 89 percent of parents think physical activity at school is very important and another nine percent think it is somewhat important. (According to research from the Child Health Assessment and Monitoring Program from the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics)
• North Carolina has no mandated time for physical education in kindergarten through 8th grade and requires only one year of physical education for high school students.

Contact Evie Houtz for information about Be Active Schools and making a commitment to get your school, classroom or after-school program more active, more often.