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8
Recommendations
T
his chapter presents the committee’s recommendations for strength-
ening and improving programs and policies for physical activity and 
physical education in the school environment, including before, during, 
and after school. These recommendations were developed in accordance 
with the guiding principles outlined in Chapter 1, which included recog-
nizing the benefits of instilling lifelong physical activity habits in children, 
the value of applying systems thinking in efforts to improve physical activ-
ity and physical education in the school environment, current disparities 
in opportunities and the need to achieve equity in physical activity and 
physical education, the importance of considering all types of school 
environments, the need to consider the diversity of students in developing 
recommendations, the importance of taking into account the practicality of 
implementation and the challenges and barriers faced by stakeholders, and 
the need for recommendations to be based on the best-available scientific 
evidence and promising approaches. The consensus recommendations pre-
sented in this chapter are a result of the committee’s deliberations on the 
existing evidence and on the need for additional evidence.
In making its recommendations, the committee also recognized that, 
although schools can play a major role in improving physical activity 
among the nation’s children, schools alone cannot implement the changes 
across systems that will be required to foster a healthy and educated 
future generation. The involvement of many more institutional players 
and supports will be necessary to make and sustain the needed changes. 
The committee applied systems thinking to delineate the elements of the 
overall system of policies and regulations at multiple levels that can influ-

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Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
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