10-minute recess? It’s a reality for students at one Sedgwick County school this year
Parents at one Goddard intermediate school may have noticed a change in schedule that has resulted in less recess for students this school year.
Discovery Intermediate School students in Goddard now have reduced, 10-minute recess periods for the 2025-26 school year, and that recess is no longer directly after or before lunchtime.
The move is part of scheduling changes Discovery made to align with previous guidelines from the Kansas Department of Education, according to Dane Baxa, the community relations director at USD 265.
The Goddard school district’s first day of class was Aug. 11, and Discovery includes students in grades five and six.
Previously, students had 15 minutes of recess. The reduction was Discovery’s choice to increase time spent in core instruction — math, English, science and social studies — and to allow more flexibility in the schedule for students to move about the buildings, Baxa said.
“[The school was] just focusing on increasing the amount of time in the core [instruction] ... [and] just the complexity of students rotating throughout the building, everything, trying to make it all work and keep safe,” Baxa said. “You only have so many minutes in a day.”
The district official said previous state guidelines mandated recess times could not be immediately before or after lunch in order for those minutes to be counted toward the school day.
“There had to be something between those two activities [lunch and recess],” Baxa said.
Denise Kahler with the Kansas State Department of Education shared with The Eagle that the recent policy change removed some language around recess and lunch.
The original policy’s language said “recess that is immediately preceding or following lunch” did not count toward enrollment minutes. That sentence has been removed as of this week.
In addition, the guidelines now allow recess periods to be held anytime in the morning or afternoon. Previously, only “mid” morning and afternoon recess was permitted.
There are no state requirements that mandate school recess times, but KSDE guidelines do say schools are allowed to have two recesses each day, not to exceed 15 minutes each.
“Due to the increasing complexity in setting elementary school schedules, KSDE determined that schools needed more flexibility,” Kahler wrote in an email. “The new policy does not change the amount of recess time that is allowed to be counted as part of the required school term, it only gives schools more flexibility to schedule the time as they balance how to provide the best learning environment for their students.”
Baxa said USD 265 was made aware of the policy change Monday, and the principal is always re-evaluating the schedule throughout the year.
Challenger Intermediate School, the other intermediate school in Goddard, also moved its recess to the end of the day, but it remains 15 minutes in length.
The Goddard Education Association, a local Kansas National Education Association affiliate that provides support to teachers, staff and retirees, declined to comment on recess times for this story.
Wichita Public Schools spokeperson Susan Arensman said every USD 259 classroom has a 15-minute daily recess, and scheduling varies by grade level.
Reduced recess time draws reaction
Crystal Satrom has one student at Discovery Intermediate School. She found out about the recess change from her sister, who has a student with special needs at the school.
“She always has to do meetings to kind of get everything situated and ready for her daughter to be able to go to school there, and meet with teachers and principals and nurses and all that kind of stuff,” Satrom said. “So as she was in all of these meetings leading up to it ... she’d been given the schedule, I think, and saw that the recess was going to only be 10 minutes long.”
Satrom said she has concerns with the shorter recess time.
“You immediately get to researching, and you can come up with tons of research [from] different places that shows this is not effective for students learning ... it’s very counterproductive,” Satrom said. “I have a 10-year-old boy, and I know he needs exercise ... he needs breaks.”
Baxa said in a phone call Wednesday afternoon he hadn’t heard concerns from parents about recess, but parents and guardians should get involved if they have concerns.
“We just want to encourage our families to connect with their school administration if they have any concern and get involved in an opportunity to engage in these kind of discussions that impact their child’s goals,” Baxa said. “By getting involved in PTO, site counsel, those type of opportunities are where kind of things, like daily schedules, are discussed.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 20 minutes of recess, or a similar period of physical activity, a day for students in grades kindergarten through 12.
Satrom said she and other parents she’s talked to want to meet with the principal to discuss next steps.
“We just want to figure out where it’s coming from, and what can we do to change it,” Satrom said.
