Physical Education Law
Senate Bill 4
In 2007, the state of Oregon was the first in the nation to pass legislation requiring mandatory minimum minutes for physical education in elementary (150 minutes) and middle school (225 minutes). That legislation was passed with a 10 year grace period for implementation. In 2016, with less than one year before the bill went into effect, schools were found to provide less physical education than they were pre-legislation.
In the fall of 2016, Senator Peter Courtney, Oregon Senate President and the chief sponsor of HB 3141 gathered together a group of stakeholders from the Physical Education for All Kids and the education lobby. The discussions led to the creation of SB 4, which outlines an implementation path forward for offering the recommended minutes of PE for students in Oregon.
Full bill language of SB 4 (2017)
Full bill language of HB 3141 (2007)
Current State Of Physical Education
In 2017, the Oregon Department of Education published a report documenting the number of minutes of physical education instruction provided to students and the physical capacity of schools to provide quality PE. Although the data show that some schools have increased time and improved facilities, the majority of schools are not meeting the standard.
Oregon Department of Education Report on Physical Education (2017)