Advocacy coalition helps pass school recess bill in Washington State The American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Society of Health and Physical educators are among the organizations that endorse daily school recess for all children. However, schools in the state of Washington (USA) provide recess unequally. This article outlined the process by which a coalition of 100+ organizations worked together to pass a Washington State bill requiring all schools to provide a daily minimum of 30 minutes of recess. The authors—part of the coalition—share their process in this article to inspire and inform other advocates to work towards policies that promote children’s health, physical activity, and well-being.
This is a case study of a successful advocacy effort to influence state law makers to pass a bill in support of equitable, high-quality recess for children in Washington. The participants included a cross-sector coalition of recess advocates, including pediatricians, parents, educators, community organizations, and youth. The analysis consisted of participants recounting their process and describing the lessons they learned from working together to press state legislators to pass a state-wide recess bill.
In 2023, the King Country Play Equity Coalition’s Advocacy Team spearheaded an effort that resulted in the State of Washington passing a law mandating a minimum of 30 minutes of recess per day and recommending recess best practices for schools. The Coalition sought a minimum of 45 minutes of recess but largely saw the compromise bill as a success. As part of their analysis, the research team shared a detailed timeline of the steps their Action Team took to influence legislative actions. Their work included researching other states’ recess laws, drafting a policy 1-pager, surveying parents across the state to identify disparities in recess provision, seeking feedback from educators and administrators, assembling a youth action team, launching a social media strategy, securing bi-partisan bill sponsors in the House and Senate, providing testimonies to lawmakers, publishing op eds and press releases, and mobilizing quick responses to legislative questions and concerns about the proposed bill. The article also identified important barriers to passing pro-recess legislation, including school schedules and concerns about lost instructional time and dealing with student behavior.
The article concludes with a “lessons learned” section to provide direction for other organizations’ advocacy efforts. In this specific case, recess advocates rallied around a published State of Play report, which defined both problems and policy solutions that helped mobilize and galvanize support among a wide range of individuals and organizations. Working with 100+ organizations helped to mobilize people and prove the bill’s broad support. Other important steps included recruiting and working closely with bill sponsors in the legislature, collecting local data to sway opinions, preparing counterpoints and compromises to anticipated opposition, and having diverse stakeholders in support of the bill. Legislators seemed more responsive to medical professionals, videos, stories, youth testimony, and anecdotes than to other types of case making and advocacy. The group also learned a lot from partnering with a lobbyist from the state’s educational union and with an advocacy expert from the Urban League, who helped them understand the minutiae of the legislative process and political strategies to take at each step. Overall, this re-telling of a partial legislative victory might help inspire and inform other coalitions looking to pass state legislation that supports children’s physical activity and mental health.
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