Schools should provide students with the opportunity to participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, with the majority of that time coming during regular school hours, the Institute of Medicine recommends in a new report released today.

"School policies encouraging an environment that promotes physical activity and decreases sedentary time are promising obesity-prevention strategies," the institute suggests.

For the 300-plus-page report, which was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the IOM's committee on physical activity and physical education in the school environment examined the current state of school-based physical activity to see what role schools can play in helping address childhood obesity.

The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans say that all children and adolescents should engage in at least one hour of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), but only roughly half of youths meet that level at the moment, according to the IOM, the health division of the National Academy of Sciences. A study published earlier this year in JAMA Pediatrics found that youths' daily MVPA tends to decrease with age, a finding which the IOM echoes in this new report.

The institute's recommended "whole-of-school" approach would require "all of a school's components and resources [to] operate in a coordinated and dynamic manner" to give students the chance to engage in at least 60 minutes of daily MVPA. Between 10-20 minutes of this daily MVPA could occur during high-quality physical-education classes, the IOM suggests, but other sources must contribute to reach the 60-minute threshold, too.

The IOM says that elementary schools should provide students with at least 30 minutes of daily physical education, while middle schools and high schools should hold at least 45 minutes of daily physical-education classes. Students should spend at least half of their time in those phys. ed. classes engaging in MVPA, the committee recommends.

The report also suggests that the U.S. Department of Education should designate physical education as a core subject, as it would then "receive much-needed resources and attention that would enhance its overall quality in terms of content offerings, instruction, and accountability." The IOM notes that according to a survey, 44 percent of school administrators admit to having cut physical education and recess time since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.

In addition to the MVPA time in physical education classes, students can also engage in MVPA during recess, designated classroom-activity breaks, and before- and after-school activities, such as intramural or extracurricular sports, the committee says in the report.

"Schools are critical for the education and health of our children," said Harold W. Kohl III, professor of epidemiology and kinesiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health and chair of the committee that wrote the report, in a statement. "Providing opportunities for physical activity should be a priority for all schools, both through physical education and other options."

The committee noted that there's still plenty of need for research in terms of school-based physical activity, including determining the short- and long-term health, development, and academic impacts of physical education on students. Specifically, the committee calls for further research into determining what time of day is best to integrate physical activity, whether it's through recess, classroom-activity breaks, or physical education.

If some of this sounds familiar, that's because the IOM promoted the role schools could play in reducing childhood obesity not all that long ago. Back in May 2012, the institute released a report that also recommended schools provide students with 60 minutes of MVPA per day, but this new report goes far more in-depth in terms of its recommendations and how they might be accomplished. The new study also strictly focuses on school-based obesity interventions, while the 2012 report took a broader look at obesity-prevention initiatives for all Americans.

On a related note: House Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) will be introducing the PHYSICAL Act in the U.S. House of Representatives today, according to the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. The bill will seek to establish physical education and health education as core subjects within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

UPDATE (12:00 p.m.): The IOM also released this video today in conjunction with the release of the new report. Consider it the CliffsNotes version.

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Increasing the amount of physical education time for 5th graders appears to reduce the likelihood of childhood obesity, according to a study published online Monday in the Journal of Health Economics.

The authors set out to investigate whether changes in the amount of time spent in physical education could affect the weight of elementary school students, using data from the Early-Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). Overall, across grades K-5, students participated in an average of 87.35 minutes of physical education per week, the ECLS-K data shows.

In states with no physical education mandate, K-5 students only participated in an average 77.27 minutes of weekly P.E., while students in states that mandated a specific amount of physical education participated in an average of 101.20 minutes of gym class each week. Researchers discovered, however, that only 34 percent of the K-5 students in states with mandated amounts of physical education time actually participated in P.E. for the required number of minutes.

Adding an additional 60 minutes of physical education time per week for 5th graders reduced the probability of obesity by 4.8 percentage points, according to the study.

The relationship between extra physical education time and weight appeared to be affected by gender, however. For boys, an additional 60 minutes of P.E. time reduced the probability of being overweight and the likelihood of obesity by 7.2 percentage points, the study found. For girls, the additional time in gym only reduced the probability of being overweight by 0.6 percentage points and the probability of obesity by 1.8 percentage points.

The authors dug further into the gender differences by looking at whether the relationship between additional P.E. time and other types of physical activity varied for boys and girls. They discovered that additional P.E. time decreases the probability that girls will participate in individual sports and playground activities, while additional P.E. time increased structured activities (including sports), free-time physical activity, and aerobic exercise for boys.

"These results suggest that P.E. time and other types of physical activity may be complements for boys, but substitutes for girls, which is one explanation for the gender difference in how P.E. affects weight," the authors write.

The study also took a look at whether additional P.E. time had any effect (either positive or negative) on other academic subjects. The authors discovered that the only class to experience a decrease in class time with increased amounts of time for P.E. was music; an additional one minute of P.E. was associated with a 0.2-minute decrease in music class. Schools that added extra P.E. time tended to also extend the school day, with a one-minute increase in P.E. linked to a 1.6-minute increase in the length of the school day.

The study, "The Impact of Physical Education on Obesity Among Elementary School Children," will be published in the June print edition of the Journal of Health Economics.

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More than 90 percent of youth tackle-football players avoided sustaining an injury that restricted their participation during the 2012 and 2013 seasons, according to preliminary results released today by USA Football.

The organization, which serves as the official youth-football development partner of the National Football League, commissioned the Datalys Center in February 2012 to conduct a sweeping two-year study of injures in youth tackle-football programs. USA Football picked 10 youth-football leagues in Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia for the nationally representative study.

The Datalys Center placed athletic trainers at the leagues' practice and game fields to monitor and document player health. The results released today are considered first-year findings, with final results expected early next year.

Of the 1,913 youth-football players examined (ages 6-14), 9.7 percent sustained an injury that caused them to miss a game or a practice, according to the study. Of the players who did sustain injuries, 64 percent were minor enough that they returned to play on the same day.

The most serious injury reported was a fracture that required emergency surgery, Tom Dompier, president of the Datalys Center, told Inside Indiana Business' Gerry Dick. He also mentioned that youth-football players, based on the first-year results, seemed to be about four times more likely to be injured during a game than in practice.

Contusions (bruises) were by far the most common injuries reported, representing 35 percent of the total number in the study. Ligament sprains (15 percent) were the second-most common injury reported. Only 3.6 percent of the youth-football players in the study suffered a concussion.

"The health and safety of every youth-football player is our No. 1 priority," said USA Football executive director Scott Hallenbeck in a statement. "For the millions of children across the country who gain the physical, social, and psychological rewards that youth-football provides, this ground-breaking research will enable us to make the sport better and safer with scientifically gathered information."

About 2.8 million youth-athletes ages 6-14 play organized youth tackle football, according to the organization.

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Now that nearly every state has passed some form of youth-concussion law, what's next?

A study published online Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health compared the slate of youth-concussion laws enacted between 2009 and 2012 to see where states stand to improve.

In that four-year timeframe, 44 states and the District of Columbia passed youth-concussion laws, according to the study. A handful of other states have since passed such laws in 2013, with Montana and West Virginia being the two most recent to join the youth-concussion-law club.

The study found that most states' laws contain all three major provisions of the National Football League's model legislation, Washington state's Lystedt Law, which was passed back in May 2009. Those three provisions are: Requiring parents to sign a concussion-information form before their student-athlete can participate in sports; requiring any student-athlete suspected of a concussion while playing sports to be immediately removed from practice or a competition; and mandating that any student-athlete who sustains a concussion must obtain medical clearance from a health-care provider before returning. (As you'll soon see, the meaning of "health-care provider" tends to vary on a state-by-state basis.)

To break it down by each provision:

• 41 states and the District of Columbia require any student-athlete suspected of a concussion to be immediately removed from practice or a competition. All of those states besides Wisconsin and Ohio require removal for at least 24 hours.

• 40 states and the District of Columbia require any student-athlete who suffers a concussion to obtain medical clearance before returning. Fourteen of those states allow health professionals who lack traumatic-brain-injury-specific training to perform the medical clearance.

• 33 states and the District of Columbia require parents or guardians to sign a concussion-information form on an annual basis before their child is allowed to participate in interscholastic sports.

Only 25 of the 45 jurisdictions included in the study require some form of concussion training for coaches. None of the laws "define exactly how such coach-education efforts should be structured," the study found.

Moreover, 16 states' laws include some form of liability limitation or exculpatory provision, which provides legal immunity in states where student-athletes and/or families could sue schools, coaches, or health professionals based on a response (or lack thereof) to a youth-sports injury.

Next Steps

While many states' laws mirror the major provisions of Washington state's Lystedt Law, there's clearly some variation throughout.

The study notes that generally speaking, youth-concussion laws have "generally taken a one-size-fits-all approach," failing to incorporate "scientific consensus that youth concussion vary on the basis of age, the type of sport, and whether the athlete is male or female." Previous research has suggested that girls and teenagers may be more prone to suffering headaches months after suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI), for instance.

Also, no state's youth-concussion law currently targets sports-specific rules, such as prohibiting certain types of contact. Certain youth sports organizations have taken matters into their own hands, however.

The Arizona Interscholastic Association recently decided to restrict coaches from holding more than half of preseason practices in full pads and more than one-third of regular season practices in full pads. Texas' University Interscholastic League will take up a proposal next month that would limit the amount of full contact allowed in high school football practices per week. A study released last year suggests that the hardest hits for youth football players typically occur during practice.

Football isn't the only sport affected by emerging head-injury research. Earlier this month, the National Federation of State High School Associations toughened a handful of ice hockey rules for the sake of reducing the number of injuries student-athletes suffer.

Because states' youth-concussion laws haven't yet begun including sports-specific rule changes, the study concludes that they're "only part of a comprehensive youth sports-TBI-prevention framework." Sports-specific rule changes, advancements in technology, and "identifying the best education programming" could also contribute to such a framework, the study suggests.

"The legislative response has been rapid, but it remains a work in progress," said study author Hosea H. Harvey, an assistant professor of law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law, in a statement. "These laws admirably focus on secondary-level prevention, but more should be done to address primary prevention in vulnerable youth athlete populations."

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Both Montana and West Virginia have enacted youth-concussion laws within the past month, becoming the 47th and 48th states to do so, respectively.

The Montana law, signed by Gov. Steve Bullock on April 22, contains all three major provisions of the National Football League's model legislation, Washington state's Lystedt Law. It requires parents and prospective student-athletes to sign a concussion-information form before the student-athlete can participate in sports; any student-athlete suspected of a concussion while playing sports to be immediately removed from practice or a competition; and any student-athlete who sustains a concussion to obtain medical clearance from a health-care provider before returning.

Additionally, the Montana law requires each coach, athletic trainer, and official to complete a concussion-training program at least once each school year. It went into effect immediately on being signed.

The West Virginia law, signed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on May 1, largely mirrors Montana's. It contains all three of the key provisions of youth-concussion legislation and requires all head sports coaches in middle and high schools to complete an annual concussion-training course.

Also, all member schools of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission must submit a report to the commission within 30 days of a student-athlete sustaining a concussion or being suspected of suffering a concussion. The report "must state whether an evaluation by a licensed health-care professional verified that a concussion or head injury was actually suffered, whether the athlete received written clearance to return to play or practice, and, if written clearance was given, the number of days between the incident and the actual return to play or practice." The commission will then submit those reports to "appropriate state and national organizations or agencies."

The law goes into effect 90 days after being passed, so student-athletes will be affected by it starting in the 2013-14 school year.

With the actions taken by Montana and West Virginia, only two states now lack any form of enacted youth-concussion law: South Carolina and Mississippi. South Carolina's youth-concussion legislation, after being passed by the state House on March 21, was sent to the state Senate committee on education. It spent nearly two months there before the committee offered a favorable report (with an amendment) on May 13.

Mississippi alone is not considering any form of youth-concussion legislation. A handful of youth-concussion bills were introduced during the 2013 legislative session, but none made it past committees.

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At one suburban Chicago high school, certain students are now being separated into what some call "fat gym" based on their fitness level, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The Mt. Pleasant, Ill.-based Prospect High School adopted a new physical education curriculum at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year, according to the Tribune, and it's drawn a mixed reaction. Students assigned to the "lower"-level class are taught the new curriculum.

"It was weird at first—they're separating us," sophomore James Farquharson told the paper. "It was like a division of the fat kids and the thin kids."

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors at the school take a fitness assessment at the end of the fall and spring semesters that determines whether they'll be placed in the regular phys. ed. class or the "lower" class during the next semester. Those placed in the regular phys. ed. class have the freedom to choose their sports and activities each day, according to the paper, while students who score lower on the fitness assessment face a mandatory cardiovascular-focused program for three days per week.

Roughly half the school's 1,800 students are in the lower class, school officials told the paper.

On Monday, FOX Chicago News asked its Facebook fans to share their thoughts about such a curriculum. Supporters raised the point about students being separated based on aptitude in academic classes such as math, history, or English, and asked why the same shouldn't happen for physical education. Critics, meanwhile, suggested that separating students based on fitness level could stigmatize those in the "lower" phys. ed. class, creating easy material for bullies to target.

Forbes.com's Bob Cook summed up the debate well the other day:

"If separating kids into gym and 'fat gym' helps students overall get in better shape, then I don't see a problem with it. If you design school curricula around the fear of who gets teased when, you'll never be able to come up with anything, what with how creative kids are in ragging on each other."

What say you, readers? Do you think the potential benefits of creating separate phys. ed. classes based on fitness level outweigh the potential negatives?

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If two Republican lawmakers in Michigan get their way, the Michigan civil rights department could soon be out $3 million for raising concerns about the use of Native American mascots and imagery in K-12 schools.

Two bills introduced today in the Michigan House would require the state's department of civil rights to cover any expenses for schools forced to change their American Indian mascots.

The department initially filed a complaint in February with the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights (OCR) asking for a ban on the use of American Indian mascots and imagery in K-12 schools that receive federal funds. The department charges that the use of such imagery denies equal rights to American Indian students.

The legislation introduced Wednesday by Reps. Bob Genetski and Dan Lauwers would create a $3 million "school mascot reimbursement fund" that would cover the cost of changes to mascots, uniforms, billboards, gym resurfacing, and other expenses generated if the OCR approves the Michigan civil rights department's complaint. The money would be earmarked from the Michigan civil rights department's budget.

"The civil rights department filed its complaint independently, without input from local citizens, so it can pay for any necessary changes it may have caused," said Genetski in a statement.

Lauwers echoed Genetski's comments in a statement of his own, in which he called the complaint from the Michigan civil rights department "misguided."

"If a state-funded department is going to arbitrarily issue a complaint that could hurt our public schools, then it's only fair they pick up the tab for any potential costs," said Lauwers. "Every school dollar possible should be going into the classroom to teach our children, not be spent on the new paint and letterhead needed to change mascots."

Vicki Levengood, a spokeswoman for the state civil rights department, told the Detroit Free-Press that it would model its policy after Oregon, whose state board of education voted in 2012 to ban K-12 public schools from using Native American mascots. Any school affected by the new policy has five years to make the change.

The legislation from Genetski and Lauwers was referred to the House committee on appropriations.

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Andrew Wiggins, the consensus No. 1 men's basketball recruit in the class of 2013, announced today that he'd be playing for the University of Kansas Jayhawks this coming fall.

Within minutes of his announcement, his Twitter mentions were flooded with an endless wave of hate speech.

A number of fans from the schools Wiggins spurned (the University of Kentucky, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Florida State University) took to Twitter to express their frustration with his decision, to say the least. Bloguin.com captured a sample of those very-much-not-suitable-for-work tweets, for anyone who's morbidly curious.

More than one person told the 18-year-old budding star that they hoped he tore his anterior cruciate ligament, simply because he wasn't attending the school of their choice. Others called him basically every vile name you can possibly imagine.

These Twitter critics aren't necessarily representative of their overall fan bases, of course. A number of fans from those schools took the classy route by sending their best wishes to Wiggins via Twitter, despite their disappointment.

It's no secret that athletes of all ages face this type of backlash from disgruntled observers. Many find it particularly deplorable when it's targeting a youth, however. Would you want someone calling your 18-year-old child every curse word in the book just because of his or her college choice?

If not, let that be some food for thought the next time you see someone fire out a derogatory tweet aimed at a student-athlete wading through the already murky waters of the college-recruitment process.

Photo: Huntington Prep basketball player Andrew Wiggins, with his mother, Marita Payne-Wiggins at his side, announces his commitment to the University of Kansas during a ceremony on Tuesday at St. Joseph High School in Huntington W.Va. The Canadian star, a top prospect, averaged 23.4 points and 11.2 rebounds per game this season for West Virginia's Huntington Prep. (Sholten Singer/The Herald-Dispatch/AP)

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Cross-posted from the Rules for Engagement blog. Written by Nirvi Shah.

Parents and teachers often find themselves fighting to preserve recess, and physicians say it's a critical part of students' daily life.

But can these short play breaks, already deemed invaluable, be made even more so with a little more organized activity?

Perhaps. New research shows that children whose recess time is accompanied by coaches directing their play are a little more active than kids with comparatively unstructured recess.

The research released Tuesday about Playworks, a nonprofit that provides recess coaches to low-income schools, shows that children at schools with Playworks coaches spend a little more time engaged in vigorous physical activity than peers at schools without these coaches.

To determine this, kids were fitted with accelerometers, which measure physical activity. At Playworks schools, students spent an average of 14 percent of recess being very active. Students at other schools spent 10 percent of recess being as active.

Schools pay Playworks up to $25,000 a year—using federal Title I money for disadvantaged students—for a full-time recess coach. Many of the coaches are Americorps volunteers. The organization has full-time coaches in 367 schools in 22 cities and is in the midst of expanding.

The physical activity findings, by researchers at Mathematica Policy Institute and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University, are part of a larger study. Would the increase in physical activity be worth the price at your school, considering the childhood obesity epidemic and the fact that many children live relatively sedentary lives?

The study also found that at Playworks schools, sports equipment, such as bases for ball games, cones, and jump ropes were more likely to be available at recess than at schools without recess coaches.

Other results from the study, made public last year, showed that the Playworks approach can smooth the transition between recess and class time—giving teachers more time to spend on instruction—and can cut back on bullying in the schoolyard. Teachers in participating schools also reported that their students felt safer and more included at recess, compared with those at schools without the program.

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You think pole vaulting is difficult enough as is? Try doing it while being legally blind.

Two high school student-athletes did exactly that this past weekend, each competing in her respective state's championship event.

Despite being unable to see the bar she'd be jumping over, sophomore Charlotte Brown cleared three heights at the Texas track and field state championships on Saturday. Brown cleared the first three heights (9 feet, 6 inches; 10 feet; and 10 feet, 6 inches) "easily," according to the Associated Press, but couldn't clear the 11-foot height in three attempts. Coming into the day, Brown's personal best was 11 feet, 6 inches.

Brown has 20/400 vision in her right eye and "only a pinhole field of vision in her left eye," the Dallas Morning News reports. To compete in the pole vault event, she lays down a special 80-foot strip of artificial turf alongside her running lane, which provides her a light/dark contrast she can use to keep herself running straight. Once she starts running, her coach, Derek Smith, shouts out the number of steps she's taken to give her a cue of when to time her jump.

"I've always wanted to do stuff with adrenaline," Brown said a day before competing at the championship, to the AP. "Most people think it's crazy to pole vault. I've always just thought it would be a lot of fun. I run full speed at a stationary object that I can't see."

She ultimately finished the event in eighth place (of nine). The National Federation of State High School Associations also presented her with the Section 6 National High School Spirit of Sport Award during the meet.

A similar scene unfolded at the Arizona track and field state championships on Friday, with 17-year-old Aria Ottmueller, who is legally blind, competing in the pole vault event.

Ottmueller only started pole vaulting six weeks ago, according to ABC15.com, yet she still managed to qualify for the state meet by clearing a 6-foot, 7-inch jump. Like Brown, Ottmueller is unable to see the bar that she's supposed to sail over, so she relies on counting her steps and muscle memory to know when and where to jump.

"We started out and did it a lot by feel," Ottmueller said to CBS5AZ.com. [Coach Perry Fraley would] take my pole, I'd hold it, and he'd put it in the pit and he'd help me get the feel of jumping."

That method served her well during the state meet. She set a new personal record by clearing a 7-foot, 6-inch jump, finishing sixth at the championships, according to her school's athletics Twitter account.

Check out this video of Ottmueller clearing a jump at the state championships, courtesy of AZCentral.com.

Photo: Emory Rains High School's Charlotte Brown, who is legally blind, competes in the Girls 3A Pole Vault in the UIL State Track & Field athletics meet on Saturday in Austin, Texas. (Eric Gay/AP)

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