Tell Your State PTA: Get Schools to Share Playgrounds!

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playground locked with kids
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School is back!

But when classes end, does your school lock up its recreational facilities?

Letter - Share SchoolsMany Latino families live near schools that lock fields, courts, pools, and playgrounds before and after class—meaning kids miss physical, mental, and emotional benefits of physical activity and play.

Tell your State PTA to help get schools to open school rec facilities after class with “Shared Use” or “Open Use” policies!

Open or shared use policies can serve as a beacon of good health for local residents, boost community safety, and increase children’s opportunities for physical activity, which is scientifically proven to reduce disease risk and contribute to physical, mental, and social well-being.

Open use policies allow a school to formally grant public access to its recreational facilities. A shared use agreement” is a contract between a school and another group that allows sharing of school facilities for the public or groups after hours.

For example, in San Antonio, community, school, and city officials worked together to develop a shared use agreement to open school grounds to the public and create a new community park with a playground, exercise equipment, trails, and an amphitheater at Sky Harbour Elementary School that is open after school hours.

In Earlimart, Calif., school and county leaders developed a shared use policy for existing schoolyards.

In Minneapolis, Minn., the school board and parks board worked with local organizations, non-profits, and colleges to optimize public use of a neighborhood pool and share maintenance responsibility. Swimming, for example, is associated with physiological, emotional, and behavioral development.

The future of Latino and all children and their physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being depends on accessible opportunities for physical activity.

Urge your State PTA to issue a memo to its entire network urging them to push for local “shared use” and “open use” policies in schools across the country!

By The Numbers By The Numbers

20.7

percent

of Latino kids have obesity (compared to 11.7% of white kids)

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