Senate Standing Committee on Education

The Senate Education Committee will come to order. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to this informational hearing here in this very impressive venue. I will say locker rooms have come a long way since my playing days starting forward on the Millbrook High School soccer team, and if we were really doing this right, we'd have somebody singing the national anthem.

But let's begin the hearing. So first, let me begin my comments by thanking the Los Angeles 84 foundation for all of its support and assistance in developing this morning's informational hearing. Ensuring that students and all children have adequate play and access to physical activity is essential to a child's social emotional development and health.

Second, I'd like to thank Kevin Demoff and the entire Los Angeles Rams organization for generously hosting this important conversation here at SoFI Stadium today, and I'm very proud to serve as the chair of the Senate California State Senate Committee on Education last year, among the bills I authored was a measure, SB 291, which addressed inconsistencies and inequities in schools across the states with regard to recess, to ensure that every California student can be assured of access to at least 30 minutes of recess in a standard school day so as to benefit from the benefits that accrue from unstructured play and decompression that only recess provides and which an extensive body of research has validated.

Today's hearing on physical fitness and play is a natural next step in that broader conversation as we endeavor to build on that success and explore ways to bring young people opportunities for play that will offer pathways to personal growth while addressing the disconcerting trend toward inactivity, obesity, and other behavioral issues among young people.

That robust physical activity has been found to offset. The title of today's informational hearing is examining physical education through a play equity framework. Today's hearing will also serve as the official release of the 2024 California play equity report, the first of its kind.

Commissioned by the LA 84 Foundation, the report provides a statewide look at play equity and insights into the barriers of sport, play and movement for kids. The report also examines the landscape of youth sports participation and physical activity across the state, with a specific focus on underserved communities and the barriers that they face.

The report's findings are both eye opening and inspiring, revealing both some of the pressing challenges currently preventing all children from fully benefiting from play sports and physical activity, while also showcasing the promise of youth participation in physical activity.

As part of today's hearing agenda, the Committee will have the opportunity to hear highlights of the report and a presentation from the Legislative Analyst's Office on Physical Education PE funding in California.

In the last section of the hearing, we will also hear from a panel of experts on the benefits of physical activity and physical education for students and communities.

In a moment, I'm going to turn the floor over to Mister Kevin Demoff of the Los Angeles Rams and then to a man who probably needs no introduction here, LA legend Derek Fisher, five time NBA champion who's now serving as a coach at Crespi Carmelite High School here in the LA area.

Before we do that, are there other Members of the Committee who'd like to make an opening statement? I have with me today my colleague, Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, and my colleague, Senator Steve Bradford, welcomes. Senator Smallwood-Cuevas.

Thank you so much, chair Newman. And it is an honor to be here and to be in this amazing locker room of all places, to have a press conversation and a panel and discussion. One would not have thought the locker room, but wow, what Diggs.

I am honored to sit on the state education Committee under Chairman Newman and to serve as chair of the Labor Committee for the State Senate. And I want to say that this conversation, though we are talking explicitly about youth and the role that sports and physical education plays in their lives today.

As we think about what we invest to address conditions around access to affordable healthcare, when we look at communities, particularly underserved communities, black and brown communities, where we see disproportionate numbers of folks dying from preventable diseases like diabetes and hypertension, when we think about workers comp and how do we ensure safe and healthy workforce, what are those values and skills and traditions that individuals learn early on in terms of body and mind?

And I want to say that this conversation is about how we are intentional about investing in our youth and in their health, in the role that physical fitness plays, plays. But it's also about the sustainability of our state and our workforce and what makes our community wealthy and rich and whole.

So I want to say thank you to the organizers of this event, particularly RHNAta, who does amazing work. Fernando Ramirez, La 84 family want to thank the Rams for helping to sponsor this and Mister Fisher for joining us and leading this discussion today.

Thank you. Senator Smolakovic, Senator Bradford, good morning. Welcome.

Thank you, chair Newman. It's truly an honor to be here and let me welcome you to the 35th Senate district where we find ourselves here today. And where I've been honored to represent for the last eight years.

And to Mister Demoff for his leadership not only with the Rams of being a Great Community Partner, my good friend Miss Simro, and all the work that she has done through LA 8th 84. And the important dialogue that we're going to have about youth activities, movement sports.

And as someone who coached youth sports for 16 years, both football and baseball, I know the importance of house activity. Physical activity is such an important connective tissue to keep kids involved in their communities. To develop skills beyond athleticism, to know what teamwork is, know what collaboration is, and communication skills. And so I'm excited about this.

This study is critically important because as we see the increase in childhood obesity, and we know, as we stated in some communities, we do not even have any type of sports activity for kids to participate in. Many schools don't even have.

No longer have grass fields or basketball courts for them to engage in some type of physical activity and movement. So this report is eye opening. It's important that we all understand our role in playing, in keeping young folks involved.

And physical activity, it prevents a lot of diseases that we could avoid, such as hypertension, like I say, obesity. And so I'm excited about having this discussion today. I thank my colleague, Senator Newman, for his leadership and chair of this Committee. And welcome all of you, Mister Fisher, and his commitment to what we are doing here today. So thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you. And as somebody who's been coached by Senator Bradford, I thank Senator Bradford and Senator Smallwood-Cuevas for being here today. And so with that, the floor is officially yours, Mister Demoff. And again, thank you so much for your hospitality this morning, and welcome.

Thank you Senator Bradford to see you again. Senator Newman, thank you for choosing such a wonderful venue to have this conversation. And Senator Small Cuevas, thank you for being here as well.

I would not have imagined on Sunday, when we were standing in this exact spot, spraying water all over each other, that it would be so buttoned down in here five days later, as it goes. But the joy of sports was right here after our victory over the 49ers on Sunday. But this place cleans up well.

And you know, when we built Sofi Stadium in Hollywood Park, I envisioned hosting World Cups and Super Bowls and the Olympics. And we're so grateful to have hosted a Super Bowl. And to have the World Cup in 2026, another Super Bowl in 2027. And the Olympics with the opening ceremonies and swimming in 2028.

I never would have imagined we would hold a Senate Education hearing in the locker room. Everything else I could imagine a Senate Education conversation, not so much. But I do think this is a wonderful place to remind people of the power of sports and what it does to bring community together and youth together in meaningful ways.

And while we have an amazing platform with the NFL and everything we do here in Los Angeles, so much of our effort has been around engaging youth and bringing them into sport.

And, you know, first and foremost, our partnership with LA 84 and Renata to make sure that play equity is something that spreads throughout Los Angeles and that youth have access to after school programs and to physical education and to be able to move their body.

And I think of whether it's our place 60 programs we engage in throughout Los Angeles. In fact, the first public event we did upon returning to Los Angeles is a play 60 event with middle schoolers right here in Inglewood in 2016. And I think even last week, we just, you know, unveiled a new field at Nickerson Gardens for them to use for play in youth, where there was a dirt patch before.

And you think about the difference it makes in their lives and just the quotes and the smiles from the kids on their faces that they now had a place to play. Right. And that is such an important element of youth.

As a parent of teenagers who do not play and should, too much of youth time is spent indoors on devices with electronics, and it should be spent outdoors with one another, engaging. And if we don't foster that through throughout our programs, in schools and everywhere else, then we are doing our kids a disservice.

And I think about all of the benefits that come from sports, from health and fitness to education to connection to developing mental toughness and becoming a great teammate. Those are all can't be lost in our system.

As our kids grow up and the things that we value so much of the Rams, when we draft players, we talk about a north star, which is character and grit and resilience and toughness and being a great teammate. Those get developed by playing, and it starts in school.

You don't learn that when you go to college and play. You learn that, you know, throughout your journey in sports through great coaches like Senator Bradford, if you ever decide you want to take a shot at the NFL, let us know.

But, you know, that is why we have been so engaged with Nod and her group, and why this mission is so important to us is, and we welcome you to our locker room. And if there's a place to have a discussion, it is in this beautiful locker room. This is the first, just a fun fact for all of you in the 85 year history of the Rams. This is the only locker room the Rams have ever designed.

And if you're wondering about the shape, it is in the shape of a horn, which you can kind of see up in the roof and overall, so that is why it is a little bit strange shape. So we sit here at the spear of the horn, ready to go talk about how we bring you together.

So I actually have to go to Woodland Hills to go inspire our not so young team to go get ready for a trip to Chicago. But look forward to hearing about the efforts of this conversation and thank all of you for your focus and attention on our youth. So, thank you

And thank you. And please, please, thank you. And again, thank you, Kevin. And thanks to the Rams for hosting this today. And with that, it is my pleasure to introduce somebody we have all known for many, many years, five-time NBA champion and community leader, Mister Derek Fisher. Welcome, welcome, Mister Fisher. You may proceed when ready.

There you go. There we go. I think it's on now. Thank you, everyone. And I am going to apologize to the people behind me on behalf of my mom and dad because this makes.

This is a hearing, it makes it seem way more official this way. Never allow me to speak. You can actually, they said wireless mic. You can go to the podium if you like, or you can sit here. That would be awesome.

With Miss Low, please.

We're clearly setting a precedent for all the other panelists who want their screen time. Welcome, Derek.

No, thank you to everyone. Kevin Demoff, specifically. I know you had to step out, but to allow us to be in this space for such an important conversation is, is refreshing. I think it kind of makes the point of how important this discussion is.

I would assume they do not have many conversations in this locker room space outside of their team. And I guess now we can consider ourselves on that list of folks that have been able to have a team meeting, for lack of a better phrase, in this space. So thank you to Kevin and Ramsden sofa stadium.

Thank you to the Committee here. I've seen each of you in different settings individually, but it is good to see you here collectively and get a chance to connect to RHNAta, who I consider to be one of my coaches and mentors and people that have influenced and impacted my life in a very significant way.

Thank you for this opportunity as well. You'll get a chance to hear from Doctor Parham a little later, who has also impacted my life in a very positive and impactful way. And all of this is happening literally through the game of sports and through sport is why we're here.

If I was not blessed and fortunate enough to move to the City of Los Angeles in 1996, I was asked the question if I was a native Angeleno.

And I said, I am not, although it feels that way, because my entire adult life, I've basically lived in Los Angeles outside of a short stand or two, in one or two other cities. And so I do feel that Los Angeles, Southern California, the State of California, is truly like home. The communities matter. Young people matter.

This conversation matters. So this is not just a stop in because I used to wear a Lakers jersey. This is a commitment to the community and to the state and to this district.

One of the first community events that I attended here in LA was across the street at Kelso elementary when I first began my journey here in Los Angeles. Thank you to the Committee. Thank you for everyone to stop in and to be here and take your time.

There are people in this room much smarter than I, so I will not go back and forth on what we know. The importance of physical education and health and movement and play means to young people and to all of us. I won't forget about it. I won't leave it out.

It is important that our young people are active and moving. It impacts the brain in ways that, again, I don't fully, I'm not a scientist, but the way that activity impacts the brain and the way we feel about ourselves on a daily basis, it's so important. So it's not something that I'm going to leave out.

Kevin touched on it before he left. Obviously, the remarks that each of you made, I don't think we're trying to convince each other that it's important. I think we're trying to find a way.

And what I want to emphasize is how it has impacted my life as a guy that grew up in a smaller city, smaller state, limited resource and resources, and if not for having access to not just physical education during the school day, but also access after school to the right programs and resources.

I played my first organized game of basketball at a local boys and girls club when I was six years old. And for those of you that are not as wise as I am, I'll say it that way.

For those of you that are not as old as I am, what the boys and girls Club has meant to so many people as an after school option, not only has that been lost in some ways and those resources and facilities been limited.

But we've also seen the reduction in our schools in terms of physical education, limited PE classes and sports has always been a microcosm for, in some ways, what goes on in our society in General, and in particular in an election year where this is a part of the larger conversation around equity and inclusion and participation and all people having the opportunity, regardless of zip code, residents where you grew up, the color of your skin, your gender, you should at least have the opportunity to access the best parts of who you are.

And the way we can do that here in the State of California is really through sport like. We are one of the, if not the most diverse states in the country, in the world. And so it actually increases the pressure upon us to actually set a bar that is maybe higher than other states.

It puts more pressure on us to create the standard for how and why young people, regardless, again, of gender, zip code, part of town, should have access to the things that will help them become the best versions of themselves.

For myself, specifically, my parents could not have afforded even then, what it cost to participate in sports, in particular after school. If it were not for, as we know, our free lunch programs, many of our young people wouldn't have food, they wouldn't have breakfast on days that they attend school. Sport is becoming a very similar thing.

If sports is not made available throughout the school day, many of our young people will not move, they will not be active. It's that simple. And I would also add many of the hard lessons that we learn about ourselves and where we start to identify with who we are in some ways.

But the impact that we can have on the world that we live in starts to happen at those young ages, a part of a group or a team or some organization. And while of course, I'm biased towards sport, sports to me is such a uniquely different structure than other groups and clubs and organizations.

And so I would just continue to encourage us all, and this is not to speak at anyone, I'm including myself in this conversation to encourage us all to keep this at the top of our list of priority. I'll segue into our young girls as well.

Before I step away from and allow this data to continue, is, as we know, our young girls deal with different levels of limited access, in being underserved and under resourced, and not committed to at the level that they should.

And so sport is also in us having these conversations, making a commitment to the resources, the time, the effort that it will take to make sure we're creating opportunities for play, for activity, for physical education, in school for the right constructive programs after school for our young girls.

It is, I would argue, more important than it is for our young boys.

We've gained the benefit of decades and decades and generations and generations of resources and programs and teams and systems being created for us to get to where we want to go for 53 men that, that control this locker room week in and week out, that access, in a lot of ways, has always been there for them.

We've always invested in pee wee football on the boys side. We've always invested in boys and girls club basketball on the boys side. We've always invested in high level basketball, football, soccer, baseball on the boys side. But we're also lagging in our commitment to young girls and young women when it comes to access to sport.

And that also then plays a role in why it is inequitable currently and why we have to continue to invest in a major way. Because, yes, it lifts our boys up.

But we also know, as we sit here in the State of California with a woman of color potentially running for and being a part of the largest conversation we can have around what it means to have an opportunity, regardless of gender.

Sport is the way that we can have that conversation here in the State of California for our young girls now, so that our young girls now can grow up seeing and believing that she can access the best parts of who she is and that we don't see that drop off that starts to happen at 1112 years old for many of our young girls.

Because as the report, you know, expresses, whether it's lack of fun, lack of engagement, which obviously, as a coach speaks to part of the investment in resources goes to being able to bring in quality people that coach and teach our young people.

And we're not leaning on our parents who are already paying too much for access to sports also. Then we're asking them to coach the teams as well. And that's not necessarily what they do and what's not best for the system.

And so I just want to wrap by again saying, I know for a fact that I would not be sitting here without the impact of sports in my life. Personally, I can't speak for anyone else, but without being, and not just basketball. I played a basketball, soccer, baseball, football throughout my childhood.

And at no point did my parents have to limit my access to a sport because of the cost that all the sports were available. And so that then allowed me to explore different sports, different things and find what was my path to accessing the best parts of.

Of who I could be as a young boy that loved basketball and loved sports. And so again, I just want to wrap up by saying thank you allowing me to have this conversation, to spend this time with you all. I'm looking forward to the conversations, the information that we're going to share.

And lastly, again, I know sports sometimes gets conflated with a lot of other things, but it is very simply one of the greatest unifiers in the history of this planet. There's not many things that bring more people together than sport, as evidenced by us sitting here.

This collection of people would not be here if this was not a conversation around the importance of sport and why it is impactful for so many people. As I continue to be a resident of this community, this will always matter. I'll always be here. I'll always want to serve and be of value.

And thank you again for the time.

And thank you Derek first for your insightful remarks. And I actually have an eight year old daughter who plays and the 89 year old youth basketball league at the YMCA. And I feel like I heard in your comments and offered a coach her individually. Really, let me thank you in advance for that.

She needs a lot of work. But in all seriousness, thank you and for taking time out of your day to participate in this very important conversation. Very grateful. And with that, let me now welcome our first panelist, Doctor Shikari Byerly, who is the managing editor at Eviderus.

And Doctor Byerley, we've established a present here, so come on up here, everybody can see you. And Evitiris is a public research and strategic consulting firm that delivers actionable data and strategic insights to public policy, political and corporate decision makers.

And Doctor Byerly is going to provide us with an overview of the 2024 California Play Equity report by the Los Angeles 84 Foundation. Doctor Barley has over 20 years of experience designing and conducting survey and focus group research and she is a graduate of Dartmouth College and earned her master's and PhD from UCLA.

So she's a local product as well. And we welcome you today and looking forward to your insights.

Thank you so much Senator Newman and to this esteemed Members of the Senate and the Committee, really appreciate the opportunity and the privilege to speak to you today. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank RHNATA Simarill and the LA 84 foundation for their investment and their trust in our work. So thank you.

Before reviewing the study results, I'd also like to thank just take a moment to share special thanks to the Avidiris research team which is here with us today, including our research and data analysts. We have with us Xinran Wang. Right. There, Noah Marcotte, Kaden Sheps will be assisting me with the PowerPoint presentation.

Also our President, Raquel Beltran and our chief Executive Rodrigo Byerly. On the data side we have with us Presley Moreno, and in absentia we have Ramona Mukherjee and Calvin Bird. So thank you very much to the Evitoris team.

This was indeed a labor of love and would not have been possible without the lived experience and the diversity that we have on our team. It's a labor of love for me personally because I'm a daughter of south Los Angeles in the Englewood area.

So it's really a privilege for me to share the these results as we look at this groundbreaking study. You'll see on the first slide here some of the distinctive nature of the data that we've collected. It provides a fresh and innovative assessment of play equity across the state.

And that is the opportunity for youth independent of their age, their ability, status, their cultural, racial or ethnic background, their sexual orientation, their zip code, or what region of the state they live, to have the opportunity to engage in physical activity, participate in sports, and to move.

Parents and youth demonstrated in this research a great deal of value for that opportunity. The study is distinctive because it is a first statewide snapshot of both youth and parents on the issue of play equity and the gaps and the barriers that exist. It's innovative in that it uplifts the voices of parents and youth across the state.

As Mister Fisher indicated, we have great opportunity here across dimensions of identity difference, but also great opportunity because of the policy environment that we have in California as well as the resources. We are the fifth largest economy in the world, so play equity is something that we can and we should make a priority and a reality.

The results are reflective and representative. We have a quantitative study as well as qualitative research, the voices directly from youth and directly from parents, in their own words, about the issue of play equity and participation. It's groundbreaking in that it provides a new baseline of activity levels across the state.

It's the first study conducted post Covid as we've started to gather again, and youth and parents, adults alike, have returned to some of the levels of activity. On the next slide, a bit about the methodology for our focus groups. We conducted four focus groups compiled to parents and youth across the state. You can see the outline here.

We had a total of 25 participants and we segmented these groups by age for youth because we wanted to be sensitive to the different developmental and learning as well as experience levels by age.

On the next slide you'll see some of the richness of the diversity of the youth that we spoke to, including a Latino boy aged 14 to 15 living in Chino who said he enjoyed playing basketball baseball through school, but the stress of school makes it difficult for him to maintain his activity and participation.

We also spoke to a Native American boy aged 12 to 13 who lives in Eureka in foster care. He loves basketball. He got started through community center sponsored league. We also spoke to a young Asian American girl aged 16 to 17 who lives in Oakland.

She told us that she's been playing tennis competitively since since she was young. A biracial girl aged 16 to 17 indicated that she prefers not to play sports, but she enjoys relaxed exercise like yoga.

An Asian American girl aged 14 to 15 living in Los Angeles said she prefers activities like show choir so you can see the rich diversity of those that we spoke to as a part of this study. Likewise for parents and I won't read all of the profiles.

You have them in report, but you can see also that we have rich ethnic and racial diversity. We have both mothers and fathers. We have single mothers, single parents who struggle to make ends meet and to keep their children engaged.

We have fathers as well who are very active but indicated that there are gatekeepers and barriers for participation. We also spoke to parents both that were upper income, middle income as well as lower income.

So we really worked hard to ensure that we captured the richness that we have here in California and we think it also provides guidance and lessons for the state. Onto the survey research methodology we spoke with over 1600 parents throughout the State of school age children, which represented a total of over 2600 youth in all regions.

We conducted the research just at the end of spring in May. The margin of error associated with the parent data is around 2.4%, plus or minus percentage points.

It was an online survey and that included reaching out to parents on mobile devices and text to web and the results here have been weighted to match the distribution of youth and parents across the state.

Getting into the key findings one of the most striking elements of this research is the fact that California youth are not playing enough. The daily activities for California youth fall below the recommended CDC guideline, which is that youth every day are playing for at least 60 minutes. You'll see the exact data on the next slide.

We asked parents how often their young people for each child in their household was engaged in physical activity. The guideline is daily. What we have in California is three in five youth. Nearly 66% are not engaged in physical activity daily. 34% are the. We have 10%, roughly one in nine, who aren't engaged at all.

Their parents say they never engage in any form of physical activity at all. In a state as large as California, that's a massive number of young people who are not engaging in any type of sports, any type of play, any type of movement, which was how the, the question were crafted.

And we believe that this can be connected to the fact that we have a vast majority of youth who do not have physical education every day. That's something that we can do about in our public health.

Public schools in particular, so 66% of California youth do not have PE every day. On the next slide, you'll see our second finding, which illuminates the gaps, and we'll talk a little bit about the barriers. But significant gaps exist, particularly for girls and Latinas and black females in particular.

Latino youth overall have lower rates of daily activity than other youth around the state. Youth with disabilities, those from low income households, as well as youth in the Inland Empire, which is defined as San Bernardino in Riverside counties. You'll see the specific data on the next slide. Here on the left, you see the percentage of the percentages for youth who are least active. So 22% of Latina and black females are active five days a week or a or more. So nearly eight in 10 are not active every day.

Youth from households with income under $30,000, youth with disabilities, Latino youth overall and youth in the island empire. So rates of activity, 28% to 22%, are active five days a week or more. Our most active youth include white males and youth from households with income more than $100,000 a year.

Those are the only two groups where we have a majority, or half who are active every day. Next slide, we'll get to our third finding. The good news here, and there is some good news, is that we have made some progress in exposure to physical activity. But it's important to note that one in three youth report over the last two years that they've stopped playing for some reason. You'll see the specific data on the next slide.

We asked parents in particular if their young people had participated in any kind of sports player movement, and then we aggregated those results to indicate what the exposure levels were. Last school year, 88% have had some exposure at some point in the school year to some type of physical activity, either casual play or structured play, and you'll see 11% have not. On the next slide, we'll get to more specific details. Nearly one in three parents say that their child stopped playing in the last two years.

And you can see highlighted in the red boxes where we have the highest rates of drop off. And usually the drop off is around 12 to 13 years old. The San Francisco Bay Area, we have a third of youth dropping off. We have nearly 40% in the greater Sacramento area, in the rural north.

So this is the top of the state. We don't see those gaps when we just look at area type. So we have fairly even numbers when we look at the data by urban areas, suburban or small town. On the next slide you'll see specifically some of the gaps by age as well as race, ethnicity and income level.

In the words of one Asian American youth that participated in the focus groups, female student age 14 to 15, she says, I used to play sports. I was mostly in it to be with friends. We find that fun and social connections are really important as well as to play.

Then after a while, all of the work caught up with me of going to swim meets and I left it. And so this tension between schoolwork and the load and the pressure academically and then not having the opportunity as well as you'll see in some of the later slides. So where are our gaps there?

It's those in households that are earning under $50,000 a year and specifically for our black and our African American parents, nearly two in five who are saying that their youth have dropped out of a sport or activity. On the next slide, you'll see our fourth finding structured play matters.

So structured play is defined as those activities that are organized by adults specifically to promote the physical, emotional, mental and social well being of youth, as opposed to casual play or unstructured play. Structured play as well as parental physical activity serve as amplifiers that can help us narrow this gap five times more active, five times a week or more.

So, getting closer to that daily activity rate, you'll see the specific data on the next slide where we break out the results of daily physical activity, or not by structured versus those who are playing casually. And I'm going to point your attention to the red bar where we have youth that are playing fewer than three times a week. The number is 27% for those who are in structured play but jumps to 43. That's a huge jump for those who are active only casually or inactive.

On the next slide you'll see the results for parents parental activity and we see the same or similar gaps going on to finding five costs is a significant barrier. So we talked about the drop off rate. Why are youth dropping out? 63% of parents say that they have struggled with the cost of providing physical activities engagement for young people. Most of our parents in the study said they were paying about $100 to $500.

So when you see the gaps of drop off by household income, you can think about the fact that the cost of play is also going up along with other things. On the next slide, you'll see the specific data, 63% of parents, including 24% or one in four, who say they've struggled a lot with those costs.

And in the words of one white parent, a female from the rural north, it makes me curious how many star pro athletes are out there. Athletes are out there, but maybe will never get to have that opportunity because their family needs to buy groceries. So parents are making really stark decisions about whether to participate.

We had another participant in our focus groups who talked about the fact that she had to choose between which of her children were going to move forward. Her son was better at sports and also enjoyed the competition and her daughters didn't get the opportunity to play.

So just really powerful data behind the gender gap that we see in the results. On the next slide, you can see the breakdown of how much impact various factors have on youth decisions to stop playing. Cost is at the top of the list, with 62% saying it's had an impact, including more than a third who say it's had a major impact on their ability, loss of interest, time commitment, the fact that it's no longer fun.

So how can we make play sports and movement more fun for you and then needing to work to support the family? Nearly a third are saying that that is a reason that they have dropped out. On the next slide, we'll get to our final finding, which is that parents have a strong value for play equity.

They have near universal agreement that the state should provide full funding, particularly for PE, but also for other structured activities. And you'll see the specific data on the next slide. We asked parents or represented them with a range of statements about play equity, and we ask them, to what extent do you agree or disagree?

And the dark bar there is the percent who strongly agree. So at the top of the list is that parents agree strongly that the opportunity to participate in sports and physical activities should be available to all young people. That's regardless of their income level, their gender, their race ethnicity, or their ability level.

Opportunities to participate in sports should be available for all use regardless of ability level. We had many parents that talked about, and you see in the data gaps for those with disabilities, both physical, emotional, social and cognitive. So how can we expand those opportunities?

Parents also believe that there should be more opportunities for students with disabilities, specifically and special needs to participate in structured activities or structured play. And a theme that was common in the focus groups among young people was feeling that they weren't good enough to play, particularly sports in school or outside of school.

So how can we make it fun? How can we encourage young people that it's okay to play independent of your ability, status, or level on the next slide? We also show that parents believe it's important for the state to fully Fund structured play. Many don't know that PE is not fully funded.

And you can see here, 80% believe it's very important. On the next slide, specifically as it relates to PE. 58% say that they did not know that the state does not fully Fund PE, as well as youth sports in structured play activities.

And finally, I'll leave you with the data on the enrollment in physical education, where we also see gaps. I mentioned earlier that we have a high majority of youth, 57% that do not have PE every day. And those gaps are particularly high for young children. So five to nine who may or may not have recess.

Children in the greater Sacramento area, 76% do not have PE every day. That's pretty star. These are pretty strong numbers. 74% of youth in private or parochial schools, 73% of children in public charter schools, 68% in San Diego, Orange and San Francisco Bay Area, those are counties. 66% of children whose parents are Asian American or Pacific Islander. And then finally, 64% of female youth. So with that, I'd like to thank you for your time and attention.

Thank you. And so, you know, we're going to give some space for questions from my colleagues. Let me start. And Doctor Byerly, thank you again for your presentation. As you mentioned, you know, PE is not fully funded. And frankly, this is one of the reasons we're having this hearing today, to gather data and start making a better case for doing that. And in doing that, also collecting better data as to what works and what doesn't, which communities are most affected. But let me ask you this question.

So how should we then think about the differences between PE, which is kind of the classic gym class, and then physical activity more generally in the schools? And how can schools better incorporate physical activity even against the constraints that are making it harder to deliver Gym class.

It's a very important question. I think I mentioned earlier, PE or physical education is such a great opportunity because we know that we can do something in schools. And we also know that majority of youth are coming into contact with physical activity as a part of school, as opposed to outside of school, or more casual play.

And so I think it's the opportunity to have something structured and also supervised by an adult. But as you saw from the range of youth that we included in the focus groups, there are different types of activities that youth are interested in. Some are really invested in what we see as more traditional sports.

And we know that running and soccer are among the top activities or most common activities that youth are engaged in. But there are also things like show choir, which we may not top of mind, think of as a physical activity. So I think there are a range of opportunities. We had youth who mentioned yoga. So it's not just about sports, it's not just about gym class. It's about giving youth a range of ways that they can engage in movement and play.

I do appreciate that. And Derek Fisher actually touched on this too often we conflate ability and reward ability and create pathways for those with ability, especially in those sort of gender stereotyped ways. But we don't recognize the pure benefits of fun. Right.

And irrespective of ability of, and making sure that all kids have an opportunity to have that experience. My second question I'll open up to colleagues. You know, we talked about schools, but in your research, what role can and should municipalities, as distinct from schools, play and expanding opportunities for healthy play?

Well, I'll say there's enough work to go around, and so there's a great role that municipalities can play. We had many youth in our focus groups who talked about the fact that while we have parks, we really only have equipment or access to playgrounds or sandboxes.

And so I think municipalities can think about how are our urban environments encouraging a range of play through parks and recreation, but also how can we invest in community organizations? We have a good deal of youth, and you saw that in the focus group profiles of youth who are exposed to community based organizations and sports and activities that are available there.

So how can we have local partnerships between municipalities, the philanthropic sector and Play Equity Fund and LA 84 is one of those partners that I know is working around state for those opportunities. And how can we connect our community based organizations so that they have the ability to really work with us on this issue.

I appreciate that. And one of the things within that larger conversation we need to do is figure out ways that communities can take advantage of school facilities and keep them open and available to the community when school is known as session? And too often that is not the case. Colleagues questions comments Senator Smallwood Cuevas, thank.

You so much, chair Newman. And thank you so much, Miss Byerly, for that really in depth analysis. And some of the data, though not surprising, is somewhat stunning.

I want to say, when you see it in black and white, I have a couple questions, and one is difference between the 88% of exposure and the 66% who are not active. I want to understand the difference between those two, those two statistics. And where does this conversation about investing in PE help to bridge some of that?

And then the other question I had, just because we are, I was surprised. I represent the 28th district, which is south central Los Angeles downtown to Vernon, sort of Central Avenue corridor to Mar Vista and Culver City. And, you know, we have this issue of being park poor, right, not having open space, not having green space because we're in this urban environment.

But then when you talk about some of the rural areas and what's happening in the Bay Area, I was really shocked by that drop off and the lack of, of activity and wondering what is going on between the rural and the urban, sort of what do you think is leading to that?

And I want to just, you know, as you were reading those statistics and going deep into the analysis, I was thinking about what Mister Fisher talked about in terms of the skills that you get from play and leadership and sort of the life decisions and values and way of being in the world, right?

And so when we look at women, young girls, and when we look at black and Latino children in this particular stage, if we just sort of sort of zoom out and think about, you know, student education and achievement, when we think about, you know, socioeconomic statistics in terms of poverty and job access and quiet, sort of like this, this is sort of like the first kind of indication, right, of where our young people are going to end up.

So I'm really, I really appreciate the way that you, this has been framed and the way the analysis laid out, because this isn't just about the play. It's also about where these communities will end up in our socio and economic environment and in our state. So those are the two questions that I had about that 88 and 66% and the difference between the rural, in urban environments.

Yeah, thank you for that. Because on its surface, they seem to be at odds with one another. So I want to place it in the LA context, if you will, because LA 84 Foundation has been doing this work since 2016 at least. And so we do have tracking data in Los Angeles County.

And so what we do know is that dating back to 2016 through 2020, that exposure was at about the Low eighties. So between 83 and 82% of youth at some point in the school year, engaged in physical activity, which that makes sense, right? You probably had some form of gym class. You may have tried out for something.

So the question is, has your child, for each child in the household, has your child had any form of physical activity in the 202324 school year? And 88% of parents say yes, at some point, but access to play and exposure is not enough, and all play is not created equal.

If youth are not active every day, if they're not staying engaged, we are not meeting what I would say are responsible responsibility to ensure that they have the opportunity for sports, play and movement, because there is a connection between academic achievement, mental health, social emotional health, and overall well being for engagement.

And so the 66% is those who are not active every day, those are falling below the guideline. So the guideline is not just that you play at any point, but that you regularly are active. So it does no good if one day a week maybe I'm jumping rope and then I never get any activity outside of that.

So it's the quality of play. And I would also add, it's not an either or, so, it's not an investment in academics or career development or college or time for physical activity. And there's been a lot of focus on over education reform to think about math, reading, writing, arithmetic.

We talk a lot about the arts, but left out of the conversation is play equity and the opportunity to move. And there's such a strong connection. It's not an either or, it's a both. And it's an enrichment of what we're doing.

Another question. Senator Bradford?

Just curious. When I was growing up, we had modern dance in middle school and high school. Was there any data as it related to. We're talking about movement and a lot of kids really loved participating in that. Has there been a drop off in that?

And I assume it has as well, offering those type of programs as well.

Yeah, thank you for bringing up that point because we not only have focus groups, data that tell us that youth are interested in a range of activities. You know, show choir is one thing I mentioned, but yoga, interpretive dance and other forms of movement were also important.

And we see a bit of a reverse gender gap, if you will. So we see many of our female youth having access to a diversity of forms of movement, whereas our male youth are reporting higher rates of soccer, baseball, basketball. So that's a different twist on the, I think, how we may traditionally look at the gender gap.

So are we exposing youth, independent of gender and other dimensions of identity, to a range of ways to play, to have fun, to move, to engage in sports?

Again, thank you so much Doctor Byerly. Really grateful. And we now invite Edgar Cabral from the Legislative Analyst Office to provide a brief overview of state school funding as it relates to physical education. California and Mister Cabral, I guess we follow the pattern. You can take that seat there. Thank you again for coming down. Thank you. You may proceed when ready, sir.

Thank you Mister chair and Members of the Committee, I'm Edgar Cabral. I'm with the Legislative Analyst Office. Our office is a nonpartisan advisor to the state Legislature. And so as someone who is used to testifying in the Capitol committees, it is for me the opposite. Weird to be next to you and facing the audience, but I think I'll do. Yeah. Yes, in a locker room.

Edgar's used to having his back to the audience.

But I feel like for me being rude to the Members, that I'm imperative.

But you do fit in well here in this sports venue.

Thank you again. Thank you for having me. I was asked to just provide a brief overview of kind of the state's role in physical education. So as we talk about potentially solutions, changes, things that we can do to address some of the challenges that Doctor Bayerley pointed out from the survey that was conducted in the research, just to get a sense of where are we now, what are the current rules and requirements and what does the state do and Fund.

And so I have a very brief handout. There are a few copies of it in the back, but also it's up on our website if anybody wants to look at it. Our website is LAO.ca.Gov. And I'm just going to talk about three main areas where the state is involved.

One is setting specific minimum requirements, two is funding and then three is setting standards. So first, when it comes to the minimum requirements, let's talk about what those are.

So in statute, there is a requirement that we, there's a number of areas of study that are required to be provided in public schools and physical education is one of those areas and it's required for grades one through 12.

The state also, and this is something that's unique to physical education versus other subject areas, there is a specific minute requirement in statute, and that requirement is for grades for one through six, at least 200 minutes for every 10 school days. So about 20 minutes a day, and then in grades seven through 12, double that requirement.

So it's 400 minutes for every 10 school days. So about 40 minutes a day. One thing I'll point out, because I think Doctor Byerly mentioned in their survey data, it's not every day, this is an average over 10 days.

And so it could be that some school districts are lumping that activity in a couple of days a week and not doing it every day. And so that may mean that there are several days where there is no structured physical education in a student's day.

I would also point out that these minute requirements, this excludes recess or the lunch period. This is time that's supposed to be part of the school day, part of the instructional time of a student's day. The next thing I would add is there's a graduation requirement.

And that requirement is that students complete two year long courses in physical education to receive a high school diploma. Again, because it's only two out of those four years, it could be that there are some years where students do not enroll in a physical education course and are not participating in that on a daily basis.

The last thing I'll add that is a requirement at the state level is that public schools must administer a physical fitness test annually. And this is administered to students in grades 57 and 9. And for those of you who went to school in California, I know, I remember at least a couple of these.

And that includes measures of aerobic capacity, strength, endurance, and flexibility. So for all, there's a few more kind of detailed requirements, but that kind of gives you the basic framework. It's really about saying public schools must provide physical education, and there's some specific minute requirements. The Department of Education does do monitoring of these requirements annually.

They choose a small subset of school districts, and they do audits to monitor whether there's compliance with the requirements. And they do publish a report annually that's on their website that you can see where you can find.

They show the number of schools in each district that they looked at, and they show if they did not meet those requirements, which of the requirements were not methadone. So that's just a very quick high level on the requirements themselves. Next, I want to talk about funding.

And so funding for physical education, like with essentially all subject areas in California, there's no specific earmarked funds for physical education. Instead, schools are funded primarily through the Local Control Funding Formula, which is the main funding source for schools in California.

That formula has a base level of funding that goes out to school districts and charter schools based on the number of students that are enrolled. And then there's also a component of the formula called the supplemental grant and then the concentration grant that varies across districts.

That's based on the proportion of students in each district that are Low income or English learners, so that those who have higher proportions of Low income students or English learners get a little bit more funding. That's the primary funding source for schools in California. That's where physical education activities are primarily being funded.

And so that will include everything from staff salaries and benefits, training, instructional materials, equipment that would be funded through LCFF. There are, and so I think of that as that's the funding source that's available to Fund the instructional PE requirements.

There are also two other large programs that the state has that are for before and after school funding that can also be used to complement the physical education instruction to provide more opportunities for physical activity throughout the day. One is known as the Afterschool Education and Safety program, which is a longstanding program.

It's been around for more than 20 years, and I think there's about $700 million in funding for that program, and that funding goes out. The priority is for school sites with higher proportions of Low income students across the state that have access to these funds.

There's also another larger program that was just created a few years ago known as the Expanded Learning Opportunities program. That program goes out to every school district and classroom based charter school in California, and that funding is provided and with the intent that there be before and after school provided throughout the school year.

And then also that school districts and charter schools offer 30 days of a nine hour programming in what we call intersession, which could be summer, but it could also be winter break if there's a Thanksgiving break, days like that.

So this is now a much broader pot of money that goes out across the state that can be used to complement other programming to promote physical activity. Now, in terms of the requirements, the requirements are just that. There be some educational components in the day in that program, and then also enrichment components.

And that enrichment can include a variety of things. So a lot of times schools are offering, for example, arts, or they might be doing this is where maybe there will be things like STEM programs, like robotics, things like that. But sports is also one of the options that's available for schools.

I would also point out that I think maybe touching back on some of the survey data that Doctor Bradley discussed about dropping off at teenage years, these before and after school programs are primarily in the elementary and middle school grades. So there's a lot less of these after school programs in the high school level.

So, finally, I just want to touch on standards that the state sets. There are two different things that the state does, and this applies to all subject areas, not just physical education. One is academic content standards. So the State Board of Education adopts content standards for every area of study.

And these standards are usually developed with large groups of experts. They can be teachers, people employed in school districts, but also academics and other experts in the specific subject area to develop these standards. So there are model standards for physical education that were adopted in 2005.

There are also something known as curriculum frameworks, which is, again, something the state does for every subject area.

And these frameworks essentially are a way to take those standards and create a template or one example how you can create a curriculum or a lesson, structure the school year to integrate the content so that students can learn or be able to do those standards. And so that is also available for physical education.

Those were developed in 2009. The state does periodically update these, but the physical education ones have not been updated in a long time. So that concludes my presentation and just wanted to provide a very high level overview of those things. But I'm happy to answer any questions at the appropriate time.

Thank you Mister Cabral. Quick question, then I'll open the conversation to my colleagues. You mentioned that the monitoring and enforcement is done on kind of a random audit basis.

In your view, is that working and is there a better approach that the Legislature should consider to ensure that all schools are trying their very best to meet their PE obligations?

I think one thing I would notice that there is this review and then there is a review and an occasion and I don't know how long it will take before it would get back to you that we would come back and review the district.

I would point out that this is not, there's no specific consequences in statute for not meeting those requirements. And so that's something that there is a finding, it will be posted that a school district did not meet those physical education requirements, but there isn't a specific, for example, in other cases we have financial penalties or other things. That's part of how the state ensures that certain activities are done.

I appreciate it. So you anticipated my follow up question. So hopefully we'll hear from some of the other panelists as to their recommendations, what, you know, given the importance of play, what the consequences should be if schools don't meet their obligations. Colleagues, any questions or comments for Mister Gabrielle.

Thank you so much for giving us that overview. My question has to do with the requirements piece of this, these requirements in terms of the 200 and the 400, when have they been revisited and are they updated?

It seems to me, well, one, the sort of flexibility to determine how those, and that's not a lot of time, but how that's allocated is challenging for me. I'm also curious why there's less in the early years, more in the sort of secondary high school level.

I'm just curious how and when do these requirements, is it required to be updated over a certain amount of time? The other question I have is where is there in this process? I see the sort of the framework in terms of how it's regulated.

I'm not sure the who determines this are community based organizations and school district officials and parents involved in that process. Is it done strictly, you know, as part of the Administration at the district level? I'm just curious how these different levers get decided and who does that.

So in terms of the requirements, I'm. I'm not sure. When was it? I do think they're longstanding, but I can get back to you on the specific time when they were, they were adopted, the, the fact that they're. I don't have a. I can guess for you why the requirements increase over time.

My guess is, in part of it is that, you know, having kids in elementary school, some of them will, physical activity will occur whether or not you structured or not.

At least with my son, as students get older, I think, and there is a little bit more of a need to have that structured time to make sure that that occurs.

But it is something that, that I don't know if there was a specific, what the specific rationale was and having the specific way that goes from 200 to 400 in that time.

It is in General also, by the time you get to middle school, because it is sort of a standalone course, there becomes a lot more regularity to it than in elementary, where there's likely more flexibility in how that's done. Your next question, I think, was about the expanded learning funds.

Is that the specific, the frameworks, but. Also the regulation in terms of who.

Makes the decisions, the frameworks. So the frameworks, the rules and regulations. I think the Legislature enacted these laws. The Department of Education is the one that's reviewing to monitor compliance. Again, this is their following statute that's in place and then trying to monitor and oversee it.

The frameworks and the standards are ultimately adopted by the State Board of Education, but there are usually committees that are developed when they're developed, that work on coming up with the draft frameworks, the draft standards that usually, it's a very large group of people in the community.

They're often school teachers in the State of California, principals who have expertise in the area and often academics who maybe who have specific content expertise. That's typically who's included. Whether or not, I think, a community, I'm not sure, but I can get back to you on that.

Yeah, I think I would love to know, because I think this is a question of resource, and as we heard, there's sort of a level of expertise in terms of what kind of movement, what is the interest of community, who actually provides those services and ways to build partnerships.

So I really would love to see who makes up those decision making bodies and then just on the foundation, on the timing, I just sent my daughter, I took my daughter to college last weekend, so I know a little bit.

And I have a son that's on four soccer teams, and I had to take a loan out, really, for the club teams. It was incredible cost. But I say that if we're laying a foundation. Right. So I understand children are busy. Right. But we're talking about structure. We're talking about building skills.

We're talking about understanding how to care for your body and what your body needs. I think if we're laying a foundation, it seems to me we should be really investing in that structured time intentionally younger, so that as they get to middle and high school and adulthood. Right.

These are foundational pillars of how they lead their lives as individuals in terms of their health and being really mindful of their body, mind and spirit. So I'm glad that we know that these are longstanding, but it seems to me that these requirements have not actually been discussed and maybe touched, as you said, in some time.

So I think that's something we would like to look at and get more detail. Detail on.

Thank you, Senator Bradford. Thank you. You said funding is based on LCFF for these programs, but I'm curious, is daily attendance part of this or enrollment as well?

So what else you have is based on attendance? On attendance, yes.

Yes. And so regardless of how few people participate or how many people that Fund.

Yeah. It's based on overall attendance in the school day. Not specific to specific program, but yes. So it is. The baseline is starting with what's the average daily attendance in the school district and then building from there.

Okay, so let me add. I mean, Senator Smolakovsk has touched on something really important. It's really about the allocation of time.

And in my experience, especially with administrators, you know, the four, and I'm semi sympathetic, but as you talk to superintendents, principals about, you know, meeting your obligations, whether they're explicit, whether they're in statute, or whether they're obvious in this case, by providing enough space and room for kids to play, we have created a situation in California where time is the most precious and inflexible commodity for administrators.

And it's incumbent upon us to one prioritize, but also to find the resources to expand the day in ways that make sense. And so, you know, with the elop or expanded learning opportunity programs, that's a step in the right direction. But those are not permanent programs.

And so one of my goals as the chair of education is to better align the work day with the school day. And until we do that, I don't know that we're going to be able to succeed in many of our other objectives, and we've made some progress on that.

But we've got to make sure as a Legislature that we provide not only the resources, but the guidance and the priorities to do that. And so, Mister Cabral, thank you so much for your overview. I appreciate you being here. And speaking of play.

So at this time, we're actually going to have a 10 minute movement break, and it's led by Playworks. Playworks is the only national nonprofit organization focused on play during the school day and plays potential to bring out the best in every child.

So please welcome Janelle Matthews, regional partnership manager, and Fred Barrera, who's your program manager from Playworks. And they're going to get you all kinds of tired and sweaty here in the Rams locker room.

Renata, more than anybody here today, is responsible for convening today's hearing. So give her a round of applause. And, Renata, if you could. Let's, panelists, as I sort of introduce you, make your way. The next panelist, really impressive young man. He's the founder and CEO of Sports4Kids.

He is all of 15 years old, making me feel like a massive underachiever, and attends Francis Parker High School in San Diego. When Arden saw that low income schools were losing athletic coaches and physical education teachers, he took action and founded Sports4Kids.

Arden has actually been recognized at the national level by the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. He's one of 30 community champions across the whole nation. Welcome, Arden. Also on the panel, Rene Ramirez, who is the principal at Arminta Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Principal Ramirez is an advocate for holistic education.

He emphasizes the importance of providing students with opportunities to develop both academic and character skills. He strongly believes that these skills are essential for shaping responsible global citizens who will make meaningful contributions to society and to their communities. And our next panelist, Dr. Hannah Thompson, if you could all come up as I introduce you. Dr. Thompson is an Assistant Research Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health with expertise in evaluating programs and policies related to physical activity, nutrition, and youth health.

And Dr. Thompson, I would like to note, was also immensely helpful in the work I did last year with my staff in the successful passage of SB 291, which I mentioned earlier, which mandates a baseline standard of 30 minutes of recess per day in California schools, and which also, importantly, prohibits the denial of recess to students for petty disciplinary reasons.

And the final member of our panel is Dr. William Parham, who is a professor in the counseling program and Director of the School of Education Center for Trauma Informed Education at Loyola Marymount University. Dr. Parham also serves as the inaugural Director of the Mental Health and Wellness Program for the National Basketball Players Association.

Among his many past achievements is his service as a member of the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Mental Wellbeing, as well as a member of the California Science Foundation Science of Sport Advisory Committee. Welcome, everyone. And, Ms. Simril, if you wouldn't mind kicking us off, please begin when you're ready.

Well, thank you. Thank you, Senator Newman, for that introduction. And permit me by first starting out by thanking the Los Angeles Rams for hosting this, convening my team at the LA84 Foundation, and specifically Fernando Ramirez, who led efforts in partnership with your office to put this caring on.

And to my friends and colleagues, Senator Bradford, Senator Lola Smallwood, my friends and my colleagues on this Committee. Thank you for your bold leadership today. Today's education hearing is a significant milestone in the play equity movement. When we started this movement six years ago, we said that play equity was a crisis hiding in plain sight.

I'm honored today to say that it is no longer hiding in plain sight. We're bringing it out to the forefront. And the actions that we'll continue to take together, I believe, will change the trajectory of California youth far into the future. And, you know, on a personal note, I was one of those statistics you heard Shakari speak of earlier today. A girl from Carson, California, just down the 110 freeway, or the 405 freeway, depending on which way you go.

Navigating the perils of economic barriers, mental health challenges, gangs, and drugs within my own family and within my community. But I was fortunate to benefit from the power of sport, play, and movement in my public school, Leapwood Elementary, Curtiss Junior High School, and ultimately Carson High School, where I played baseball. And excuse me, I didn't play baseball, but I did play baseball, but basketball and tennis.

And it was through PE in middle school that I was able to sample a variety of sports to find what I was good at. But sport also helped me find my strength and my voice to navigate these obstacles in my family and my communities and build pathways to an extraordinarily enriched life. Sports kept me engaged in school. In fact, it was the only reason that I showed up for school on some days. And as it turns out, sports were absolutely seminal for me developing resiliency that I needed to make it through Army's basic training, which ultimately became my pathway to college.

And I can say without equivocation that I would not be here in front of this Committee if it weren't for sport, play, and movement in my life. So I'm humbled to serve as the President and CEO of the LA84 Foundation, a legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games. It's celebrating 40 years this year. And with the FIFA World Cup 26 and the LA 28 Olympics and Paralympic Games on the horizon, we are a model for what long term impact looks like resulting from major sporting events in our state.

And for four decades, we have helped build pathways to enrich lives through sport, play, and movement for millions of school age children. We have trained thousands of coaches and rebuilt safe spaces for kids to play throughout the region. And we commissioned this 2024 California Play Equity Report with one specific objective in mind, to deepen the impact of our work and to close the play equity gap. And I invite the Committee to reflect on three takeaways today.

One, the power of joy and fun. Two, advancing a play equity framework in our policy making. And three, political will. Joy and fun. As you've heard earlier today, the time commitment required to continue playing, loss of interest, friends quitting, and competitiveness emerged as the top reasons that it had a significant impact on youth leaving sports.

We can't ignore the significant differences in dropout rates reported across race and ethnicity and gender. But I was particularly struck by the fact that two in five parents, nearly 43%, say that sports was no longer fun for their children. As a nation, we need fun and joy in our lives and in our communities now more than ever.

Our US Surgeon General has raised that, as a nation, we are socially disconnected and facing an isolation epidemic, and our youth are at the epicenter of this isolation. A disproportionate amount of kids of color are struggling with stress, anxiety, and depression, my own son being one of them.

Sports bridges divides and brings people together, and in the right environment with caring adults, play and sports can serve as an arena of belonging. It creates a level of spontaneous co-creation and interaction. We saw that today with Playworks and the demonstration we did in just 10 simple minutes. And it builds community in the process.

We need to provide more time for children to experience the joy of community through sport and play. And how do we do that? I believe we do that through play equity as a framework. We need to lead from a play equity centered framework in all of our policy work in the State of California. And play equity, as it was mentioned earlier, is the concept of ensuring that all children, regardless of their backgrounds, have equality of access to play opportunities, sports programs, and healthy movement.

It recognizes that sport and play are essential for a child's physical, emotional, social, and academic development and that disparities across sports and play have perpetuated inequalities in other areas of life as well. Rates of physical activity are lowest for black and brown girls, youth with disability, and low income households, As you heard Shakari mentioned today.

This means that we must center those on the margin in our policymaking and to rethink the school day to prioritize and to make time for sport, play, and movement. And the final point is political will. I would put forth that political will is key. The policies and legislations that we put in place that are disproportionately creating this play equity gap are the same political will that we can address to fix them. So today's hearing is a great step toward moving this work in action.

Greater funding for sport and play initiatives that focus on equity will not only improve access to sports and physical activity for our youth experience inequitable opportunities, but it will further ease the barriers of a parent's economic burden by providing more resources for childcare in an after school setting.

Parents overwhelming support action by the State of California to provide full funding to support full funding to support structured play and physical activity. As you heard earlier, nearly 95% of parents believe it is important for the State of California to provide full funding for youth sports, PE, and structured play.

Likewise, an overwhelming majority of parents, 86%, as you heard, support more funding at the state level and local level for play equity initiatives that expand opportunities for all young people. Leadership matters, and I'm inspired by the leadership that this Committee is taking today. And let me close you with this. Thank you.

Thank you for prioritizing this crucial conversation. Thank you for all of you are in the audience, many organizations that we've worked with over the last 10 years, since I've been leading this organization to close the play equity gap. I think together we can ensure that every child, regardless of their zip code, can move, play and thrive. Together we can build a future where equitable access to physical education isn't a privilege, but it's a right that every child has because the health and the potential of our children depend on it. So, thank you.

And thank you. And Mr. Pala, welcome. Please be seated.

Thank you so much. Hello, my name is Arden Pala. I'm 15 years old, going on 16. I live at Francis Park. I go to San Diego and I go to Francis Parker High School. The reason I'm here today is to talk a bit about my organization that I started three years ago, Sports4Kids. And our mission is to allow youth volunteers to better the lives of the low income and homeless through athletics and community engagement. My story started when I first volunteered at a Title I elementary school in San Diego for a book reading.

Perkins Elementary is a school in San Diego with more than 30% of their students that are homeless and the other 70% that are low income. And while the principal was walking me out after I'd finished the book reading, he happened to mention to me that the school unfortunately had to let go of their athletics coach.

Now this really got to me because during that same time, I was really getting into basketball, and I knew how much basketball really changed my life. I became more confident in myself, more physically active, and more mentally healthy. And knowing that these kids at this school wouldn't have that same chance to fall in love with the sports the same way I did, really pulled on my heartstrings. So I felt inclined to do something about it. So for the rest of that year, I became a volunteer coach for Perkins Elementary.

I coached between six to eight kids every Wednesday for on an hour and a half. I had no intention to make this a nonprofit. I just wanted to do good to the community. But when I discovered the impact this extra one and a half hours per week had on these kids, I decided to make a change.

These kids were, besides playing sports and becoming more physically active, these kids became friends with each other. And even outside the sports clinic, they were hanging out and having fun. Plus that they genuinely wanted to play sports. On the last day, they asked me, when are you going to come back next? Next week, next year?

They genuinely wanted this. And that prompted me to do some more research about the situation. And over the summer, I discovered that approximately 125 schools in San Diego have more than 70% of their students that are low income. And of that I contacted around six. And all those schools told me that they don't have a structured athletics program. This research motivated me to create Sports4Kids. We started with one sports clinic at Perkins Elementary, and we coached almost 80 students that year.

We gave those kids an extra 17 hours of physical education that the school would not have to provide the resources for. Fast forwarding to today, Sports4Kids runs various programs across multiple schools in San Diego, and we've served almost 500 low income students throughout our operation. Alongside that, we are heavily driven by youth volunteers.

Our team and director of social media, communications, and outreach are all youth led positions. Alongside that, we also have a professional coach going to these schools during our sports clinics to ensure that these kids get proper, good sports education.

However, we also have youth volunteers assist in coaching these professional coaches to get the youth involved in the face of change. There are so many stories I'd like to share with you today about my time volunteering, coaching, and leading Sports4Kids. And I'd like to share one with you before we go to the next panelist.

And it's about this kid named Abraham. Abraham was one of our program's most shy participants. He navigated his way through a physical disability all his life, and he never really felt comfortable participating in sports. At first, he was very reserved in our program, understandably so.

But as the program moved on and he got more comfortable, he started to show his true colors. He played basketball, and he really liked it. And by the end of the sports clinic, he was the team captain, and he was shooting three pointers, dunking even. And he was, it was crazy.

I mean, he was having the time of his life. And what astonished me the most was that the principal pulled me aside and said, I've never seen Abraham like this before. I'd never seen him participate in any physical activity. And he doesn't really talk to anyone outside of sports.

So this was a complete new side of Abraham that he was seeing. And that is what my program is all about, bringing youth together through sports and giving them a space to have fun. Sometimes having fun is all kids really need. So thank you so much for this opportunity, and thank you for letting me share my story.

Senator Newman, with the Committee's indulgence, I would like to recognize Arden's parents over here and give them a round of applause. Just an extraordinary young man.

Principal, please proceed.

There you go. Hi. Rene Ramirez, principal, Arminta Street Elementary. I'm going to give a boots on the ground report on the current state of PE and physical activity in LAUSD. I'm a principal at an elementary school and I've worked at another elementary school not too far from here, 6th Avenue Elementary.

And pretty much the same has the state of physical education has stayed the same, at least from my perspective, across the district, in particular in elementary schools. So as was mentioned earlier, there is a requirement for 100 minutes weekly, a physical activity that equates to about 20 minutes a day. But it doesn't always work that way.

As some of the panelists said earlier, sometimes it's broken up to two days, maybe three days. And at the same time, the quality of that hundred minutes, yes. You know, I can go out and monitor in the midst of all of the other things that I'm doing, like the Senator had said and all these other things that are happening at schools, I have to go monitor the PE taking place across grades first through fifth at our school.

And it's taking place, but the quality of it is just not there. And that's no fault of the teachers, no fault of the district. It is what it is. The teachers don't come in with that training or expertise to give a quality, comprehensive PE program. And on top of that, we have an aging population of teachers. So those teachers that are near the end of their career, they just go out with a kickball and say, here. That's about the extent of the PE program is a kickball. So we have plenty of kickballs.

If we're lucky, we do have those young, energetic teachers that are coming in out of college or wherever, and they do have that background. They do tend to provide, you know, a quality, decent PE program. But in terms of comprehensive, you know, building teamwork, collaboration skills, that activity that we just did earlier with Playworks is just not there. So that is the hundred minute component. Not to mention we also have teachers that just aren't, out of shape themselves. So they don't have any motivation, so neither will the students. So we hear a lot about equity.

The equity component is definitely a concern because, as you know, students that are in my school in particular, over 90% free or reduced lunch. Our LCAP money, the money that we could be spending on PE teachers or physical activity programs, we have to spend on the social emotional development of our students because we're now not just an education institution, we're also a social service institution.

Schools, in particular in the inner city, have become social service institutions, and that's just the reality. So we have to spend our funding, our LCAP money on counselors, attendance counselors, social workers, psychologists, interventionists to get the kids caught up, because most of the kids are at least one or two grade levels behind.

So the free money that we do have, we have to spend on social services and social emotional services. And whereas if we had funding for a PE teacher or a play program that would actually motivate students to come to school, as opposed to sending a PSA counselor to the door to tell them to go to school. They would already be motivated because there's something there at the school that they're good at.

There's something there that they have to look forward to every day. They may not be good at reading, they may not be good at writing. As we know, we all come with a different set of talents. Those kids that have that physical talent, that innate physical ability to pick up a basketball, throw a football, hit a baseball, that's been proven that we all have something to offer. And so I try to do that at my school. I try to give all of our students as many opportunities as I can for success.

I work closely with our after school program to make sure that they're giving a quality sports program at our school. Because that is our sports program is the after school programs, which they aren't always quality either. But moving along to my last point I want to make is the untapped resource that we're missing with these students that do have that talent, that do have that ability to do things out of the classroom.

That's what I would like to see more support in because we are missing, at least at the elementary level, a huge opportunity for tapping resources in our students. The leadership skills that come along with these types of programs can be seen pretty clearly at an early age.

So that's why I'm firm believer in developing these as early as we can. At the elementary level, we're not seeing enough of the state funding for schools. The PETIP Program, it's all the district has. If they didn't have that program, we would have no PE program. Right now we have 17 PE itinerants for over 400 schools.

And that by the time they get to each school, it's about, I think, about seven years by the time each one of those gets to a school. So we would have zero funding if we didn't have that money and the Title IV money, of course. But we just need more support, and that's what we're asking for here today.

And thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Principal Ramirez. Dr. Thompson, welcome.

Thank you so... Is this on?

Not yet. Come in.

I think so. Now? Yeah. Good. Hi, everyone. My name's Hannah Thompson. I'm an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. And I've been studying physical activity and specifically physical education in schools for the past 15 years or so.

And my first job out of college was actually as a middle school PE teacher in Oakland Unified. And I will say I'm grateful that this locker room smells better than the changing area in that middle school, which I still think about sometimes. But that job is really what has sort of motivated and informed a lot of the work that I have done as an academic over the past 15 years in partnerships with schools and school districts.

And to your question earlier, Senator Newman, the CDC recommends something called a comprehensive school physical activity plan, which is sort of an outline for how schools can get students those recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity during the day.

The Institute of Medicine actually has recommended that that happens during the school day, specifically because of a lot of the play equity issues that have been borne out in this report, because most students don't actually have opportunities outside of school. And of that school comprehensive, of that comprehensive school physical activity plan, physical education is really the only opportunity that affects students throughout their school career.

Right. Elementary school students have recess. Not all students live in a neighborhood or it's accessible to walk or bike to school. Not all students participate in after school programs. So PE really, from a public health perspective, is really the most equitable opportunity we have to reach students, regardless of their background and to help them get physical activity in the present day, but to really learn the skills that facilitate being an active adult, going on and being active later in life.

I wanted to just mention two studies that we've done over the past few years in California. The first was a survey of how many elementary, single subject credentialed elementary PE teachers we actually have in our public schools here in California. This was right before COVID and half of our school districts in California, So over 300 school districts that educate elementary students, did not have a single subject credentialed PE teacher on staff.

So most PE was being taught by multi-subject elementary school teachers who maybe got one to two years of PE training during their credentialing program. We also found that schools with a higher enrollment of minoritized students were least likely to have PE teachers, and schools with more lower income students were less likely to have PE teachers. So real equity issue there.

We took it a step further and then looked at the association between having a PE teacher and students cardiorespiratory fitness, their heart health. And schools that had PE teachers had students who were healthier, who performed better on tests of aerobic capacity. So having PE teachers, there's a clear lack in California, and that is one way to open up the pipeline. I do a lot of work with the New York City Department of Education, which is the largest school district in the country.

They serve as a great model for, 5% of their schools, used to be in compliance with their state PE law, and now they have a huge number of schools in compliance through some of the work that they've done. So there are models out there that exist to doing PE better. We just have some opportunities to follow those.

The second study I wanted to mention quickly. As I'm sure many of you know, because we have PE is one of the only subjects where we have a minute mandate here in California. Several years ago, about 140 school districts in California were sued by a lawyer for being noncompliant with our state PE law.

And the lawyer made millions of dollars directly from schools that schools had to pay to him for being noncompliant. We actually went out and studied the impact of this lawsuit. We talked to lots of school district administrators, to lots of school district principals to ask them how they felt about the lawsuit.

They didn't like the approach, but they liked the fact that all of a sudden now people were talking about PE and they felt like it was able to be elevated up their priority list. Oh, this actually is something that's going to happen, that has to happen, and we will get in trouble if it doesn't happen. Right.

So this speaks to that accountability piece. Right? I'm not saying lawsuits are the solution. They take money away from schools. However, we do need a stronger system of accountability and some actual penalties and or benefits if you do actually comply with the law.

The second thing we also found, again, sort of supporting what we had seen in the earlier study, is that schools that were parties to the lawsuit, we saw increases in student cardiorespiratory fitness in those schools because they actually started doing PE. So there was a direct benefit seen from actually doing PE, again, born out in students heart health, which is something we care about on so many different levels. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. Dr. Parham, welcome.

Thank you. And I certainly want to first and foremost give acknowledgement to Renata Simril, who really is sort of the coach of this whole team. And I really wanted to give her, can we, let me give her a round of applause. But the other thing I want to say, I really am a practice psychologist.

A psychologist for 40 years. I have taught and worked a lot with elite athletes. And I can't begin to emphasize in a short amount of time that mental health is, in fact, the cornerstone of everything we're talking about. See, mental health is a state of well being that influences how we think, feel, and behave.

We don't do anything else but those three things. It really does significantly impact how we make decisions. It impacts our relational capital, how we interact with people. It significantly impacts how we vision the future. It significantly impacts how we deal with disappointments and reconcile all of that.

The truth of the matter, mental health, and solid mental health, and participation in play, sport, and activity, particularly organized activity, builds a sense of confidence, it builds competence, it builds a sense of agency that I can do this. It helps you negotiate challenges, some that are predicted, some that are not.

It really is the fundamental core of everything everybody does. It's an opportunity that we are missing. We don't tap into promote active activities for kids. I don't know any kid, I don't know anybody in the audience who breathes every other day, whose heart pounds every other day. Your mental health doesn't take a break every other day.

It is, in fact, a fundamental core of who we are. And I certainly want to applaud the Committee for really exposing what's been hiding in plain sight. I also think it's not an accident in the timing of this particular meeting. Because in parallel, and it was mentioned by Renata Simril, a parallel report came out by the US Surgeon General at the end of 2023. Isolation and loneliness is at an epidemic proportion globally. Not in California, not in the United States. Globally.

And again, at the epicenter are our kids. I won't go into the data on that, but I will add one other context. Social media reports are coming out that are just scathingly important to look at. They are really robbing the center and the core of our youth, who are the most vulnerable, most receptive to social media that is largely unsanctioned and unregulated. People say what they want, when they want, how they want, and to whom they want, and translate that language on a screen to seeing person athletes as avatars.

And so when they get to these arenas, they say what they want to them. I think we're missing an opportunity not to understand that context. The last contextual frame that I will offer is this. When I've read this report and many others, it really underscores for me a fundamental premise to somehow the system has failed at really addressing these needs. Personally, I don't buy that. I don't think the system has failed at anything. I think the system has succeeded at not addressing these issues. And so for me, the invitation and the opportunity is, and the question on the table, does the system want to succeed differently? Thank you.

And so thank you. Senator Smallwood-Cuevas, Senator Bradford, any questions, comments? Go ahead.

Well, just really appreciating the question. And thank you so much, Arden, for the work that you've done. And just, I want to say how inspirational. I think we're talking about the future. We're talking about vision, and this is the leadership that we want to see.

The question that I, and I don't know if it's more of a question or a comment, but what's being raised here and curious where, and particularly the studies in New York and other systems, when you talk about public health and you talk about mental health. And certainly in California, we have in the Legislature done a lot to prioritize mental health services, the voters approving Prop 1. I'm curious, when we think about this foundational work with our students and our schools as social services centers, are other states looking at other resource funding streams to braid into this, that it's not just educational dollars?

It's not just... You know, because our system in California, we have one of the most amazing educational systems in the world, from, you know, from k to 12 to higher ed. The voters have committed to that system. And we often are always looking where is the revenue to ensure that we continue to invest there. But I don't know if, I want to say, is there an opportunity to see how we might look at other places for resources?

Because what we're getting at here is, and I think the last speaker touched on this, is really creating that discipline to understand your body, to understand how to regulate your mind, your body, and your soul, and to develop that awareness early so that it lives with you for the rest of your life. So I just want to get a sense of, are there other places where we're seeing creativity in this funding, where we're seeing some collaboration? And then I have one other question after that.

Yeah. So speaking to New York. What New York did, they did this four year program called PE Works, and that was actually started by then Mayor de Blasio. And so it came from a mayoral initiative. He invested $100 million across the city's nearly 17-1800 schools to improve PE. So he saw it up at that level as so deficient and in so much need of work that he was able to get City Council funding and to do it that way. I'm sure other cities and I'm sure other people might have good examples of how it's happening other places.

But I think, and I've talked to Senator Newman about some creative ideas I've had, which have included taxing sports team tickets. We have more professional sports teams than any other state. And, you know, what if we did that, and that was something that went towards a fund towards paying PE teachers? I'm not a money person in that sense, so I will leave that to the, to the big brains. But I think there's a lot of room for creative, there's appetite for creativity if we have the people who can kind of put that, put that into action.

And, Senator, I would offer that in our work, certainly my work here over the last 10 years, but certainly the work of the foundation, the research and the studies that we've done, you know, over the trajectory of our 40 years of doing this work, is that we've lost the importance of sport, play, and movement as part of the education pedagogy. Is that when you talk about social emotional competencies, as you saw with Playworks, you develop social emotional competencies through play.

You learn self regulation, anger management, relationship development. And school is exactly where those sports, play, and movement should be offered. And not just for the students, but for the teachers, because our teachers are taxed. And so, you know, we don't want to see this conversation as being punitive to the school districts and to the teachers.

They need time to breathe, to take a break, to reflect. And I think we need to rethink also how we, across the Legislature, elevate that sport is not a nice to have. Sport, play, and movement is not a nice to have. It's a must have. Because when you reference the mental health bill, which is extraordinary. It doesn't allow for directly, and we're working with the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Mental Wellbeing to look at that legislation.

Is, is there an on ramp for community based organizations who are addressing young people's mental health and mental wellness through sport and play and movement? Can they access that three and a half billion dollars? So I think there is an opportunity for the Legislature to look at, when we pass a bill, can we make that funding available to coaches in community, in schools? When we look at obesity bills that we might pass to reduce obesity through Health and Human Services.

Is there an on ramp for organizations that are using sport, play, and movement to improve cardiovascular health, to reduce BMI as being able to access those funding, because right now, our experience says they're very siloed. The last point that I'll make, because I know, I was having a conversation earlier with our friends from the Inglewood Unified School Districts, who are great partners in really pushing forward sport, play, and movement in their school system, is that schools coming out of COVID are struggling with truancy and absenteeism.

And we did a three year longitudinal study for an after school middle school sports program that we funded for, we funded for a long period of time with the Los Angeles, with the LAUSD school system. And it looked at 16 schools within all of the elementary schools that have our sports program.

And then that was compared to the after school programs. And our study found that students in our sports program attended school six to 10 days more on average than students who didn't. So I think, and I'm happy to share that report, we concluded it in 2019. So just before the pandemic. You know, as another piece of data that demonstrates the power of sports as a tool for educational pedagogy.

Thank you for that. And I really appreciate the holistic sort of approach and so many things that can get addressed through play equity and also recognizing teachers. We hear from teachers every day at the state capitol and, you know, dealing with conflict resolution, dealing with so many issues in the classroom.

Certainly this could be a valve to release some of that pressure and tension that exists in some of our classrooms. The final question I had is about barriers. And, Renata, you talked about relationships that you have with different school districts where you're doing this work.

Can you talk a little bit about what are some of the barriers that exist between building these partnerships? I heard funding, but, you know, we often think about, is it more technical assistance? Is there, are there other ways, other barriers that come up that policy can also help to support?

I think a couple, one that just, I think just one of the biggest barriers is elevating the importance. And so I just commend this, this Committee on elevating this topic. It's crucial to the health of our kids. I think the other is, I was struck by the Legislative Analyst report, is that the curriculum has not been updated since 2005, and the standards haven't... I think it's the other way around. The standards in 2005, and the curriculum since 2009. The world has changed in that duration of time.

So if there's one thing that comes out of this Committee, I would hope that we take a look at reframing with today's standards and the information that we know about mental health and physical health and, you know, opportunities, and how kids need to move and aligning to the CDC standards.

So I just offer that as one barrier is that we're not paying attention. The second is, I think, just communication and coordination and partnership. We have a partnership, a community of practice. It's an out of school time practice with Nike looking at gender equity in particular. And it's a community of practice between parents, organizations, coaches.

And we did a parent survey. We're in the second year, the second term of a three year project. So we're in the second three year program with the same group of 13 organizations. And the parents aren't on social media to find out what programs are available within their community for young people.

The parents rely on the school district to get information about what are the trusted organizations that their kids can participate in. But the school district... And it's just a flyer, right? You see a flyer in the school when you go in PTA meeting. And the school districts were hesitant of putting that flyer up because they didn't want to recommend a community based organization that their kids can take.

And so there was this sort of feedback loop that if we just could find a way to communicate, what are the organizations within communities that are providing safe places, well trained coaches, positive environments for their young people to engage, particularly girls, in sport, play, and movement is another, I think, low barrier.

If we just look at communication, partnerships, coordination, so that the parents know where the positive resources are for their young people to be able to benefit. And the third I'll offer is something that Senator Newman lifted up is those communities that are park starved and have less access.

Is can we find a way to eliminate barriers for community based organizations or recreation and parks departments to open up our schools during the weekend and especially during the summer. Because there's not just a learning loss during the summer, there's also a play loss during the summer. And so can we look at the Department of Education and rules and barriers that are really preventing our schools for being used as centers of communities, particularly for sport, play, and movement.

Thank you. Senator Bradford.

I just want to thank all five of you for the insight that you've provided. Many times, we, as legislators, create policy from a void and don't have the real world experience. And you guys have shined a light, I should say, on where those voids are and what needs to be addressed.

And I just want to highlight, Arden. You're a rock star, man. And many times we talk about our youth being the future, but you're the right now. You're the right now. But it also speaks to what is lacking in society when our young folks have to pick up the pieces and carry them and fill those gaps where our system is not, where government is not.

So I just want to thank you for all that you're doing. And again for our educators for helping shine a light on where we can fix it and highlighting how play equity and movement is that connective tissue to our overall development and how important that is. And I totally agree with Dr. Parham that the system isn't failing.

It's probably achieving its goal of doing what it wants to do. And it's by not addressing this problem and creating the problems that, you know, many of us are facing every day. And they're probably succeeding as they want it to be. Thank you for your insight there as well.

I agree. I want to ask one quick question and then we'll get to public comment because I think it's important to get it on the record. So as has been noted, the curriculum has not been revised in quite a while. But equally importantly during the COVID period there was a moratorium on testing, and by all indications we haven't really reverted back to anything rigorous since then. I actually have a letter out to the Governor, the Superintendent of Public Instruction to get some clarity as to the plan there.

But I'd be interested, Dr. Thompson and others, what are some basic measures of success or progress metrics that we should be thinking about as we develop, hopefully legislative solutions to make this to move things forward as it relates to not only access to physical activity, but also measures that ensure that we're properly rewarding good programs, holding others accountable and moving forward in a smart fashion? If you wouldn't mind.

From the school perspective, what is working? Is that what I'm doing?

How do we measure it so that we can distill and then apply what's working across this immensely complex system in California of close to 1000 school districts and more than 5000 schools?

One of the easiest way is by involvement from the kids. What we see in them, progress in their well being, their attendance, the way they interact with each other, what type of social skills they're developing. Because a lot of that is not measured. When we take the state test, all we're measuring is how well they read, how well they write, and how well they do in math. The school is holistic education. It's a big piece, big pie. And there's lots of pieces of that pie that need to be filled and that's one of them.

So we're only measuring a very small portion of what we could be measuring. So my guess or recommendation would be, my goal is to produce productive citizens, global citizens of the world. How do we measure that? I'm not sure. I'm not a sociologist or what. But I think we do need to start measuring how well the students are doing in terms of the development as human beings.

And as we know, as we've talked about over and over again, we're missing an opportunity with a lot of these students. At least from my perspective, at the elementary level, we've lost literally generations of potential talent. Not just in sports, but as we all heard, that it translates into other areas. So how we measure that, I'm not sure, but I think that's one thing that we need to start measuring. Like on state exams, these exams are very limited. They really don't... These kids that are coming up red or well below, and all of these standards are doing well as human beings.

But there's something in that they're doing right that makes them, whether it's from the home or the family, or you have those teachers that go the extra mile, or those administrators that go the extra mile to make sure that their schools are run holistically or have comprehensive programs, after the after school programs as well. So I have to monitor our afterschool program to make sure that it's being run effectively because sometimes even those programs aren't enough. Those programs aren't run qualitatively. So I'm doing two or three different jobs at once.

So the after school programs themselves need to be monitored because those programs don't necessarily have, just like the teachers, the training or the expertise. That's another way we could measure that, make sure that those afterschool programs are qualitatively run by competent professionals, that they are monitored, because those programs are, again, a social service for our students.

And what I see sometimes on the yard is some of the coaches, they're on their cell phones, they're watching videos, and the kids, here's a kickball. So if we can monitor those a little bit more closely, because those systems in place should, in theory, work, should be helping our students build character, learn collaboration skills, because they're supposed to be doing those activities that the Playworks did earlier. That's what the after school programs are supposed to be doing.

They're supposed to be doing those Playwork activities which we had at 6th Avenue when I was a teacher way back when, and it was incredible, but funding got cut and we had to choose between a psychologist and a Playworks program, so we had to go with the psychologist. So those are things that I think could be measured more monitored more closely, that would help if we made sure that those programs, the after school programs in particular, were run a little bit more effectively and qualitatively.

I appreciate that. And Dr. Thompson, I know this is something that you and other researchers are looking at.

Yeah, so I think one would be bringing back reporting on student fitness testing. It's mandated that students take a fitness test, but now we have no longer, post-Covid, there's been no publicly available data or the data is not collected at the CDE level. So being able to kind of have our finger on the pulse of what student cardiorespiratory fitness looks like, what weight status looks like, things like that would be very valuable.

Two, I think having some sort of mandated reporting around whether or not you, in elementary schools, whether or not you have a PE teacher, and what a PE schedule and what your recess schedule are, I think that's relatively simple. We know people, there is misreporting and self report, but that's something that parents can bring to their school and help them keep them accountable.

And then the last thing I'll mention is that we have, in California, we have something called the California Healthy Kids Survey that has a main module that a lot of students, that a lot of students across the state take. We also have a physical activity and nutrition model that was taken by 12 schools last year.

12 schools elected to take it because there's a cost associated with it. So having some sort of, maybe not necessarily testing, but some sort of monitoring system around that includes, includes questions around physical activity, mental health, socio-emotional health could be really beneficial for educators themselves to kind of better understand how their students are doing.

Thank you. And let me say thank you to all of the panelists, really grateful for your generosity in time, but also your insights today. Please give them a big round of applause. And if we could, as with every Senate hearing, we'll take some time for public comment.

I think there was, there's a podium, we can bring that up front. Any members of the public who'd like to comment, please feel free. We'd ask that you limit your comments to approximately 1 minute, but all of this will be placed in the record and will be of use for us moving forward. So is there anybody here who'd like to comment publicly? Mr., really? Go ahead, Mr. Fisher, by all means, please. I might be even more generous with one minute since it's you.

Real quick. Because I just turned 50, so I don't want to forget. One of the sayings in coaching and in sport at the school level, whether it's grassroots, high school, etcetera, is that you can't out coach home. So no matter how hard you're working at school to coach your kids a certain way, you cannot out coach what he or she is being taught at home.

So part of this conversation can maybe include are there some additional resources that we can plan for parents and families to also play and move and learn?Are there things on the weekends where we can invite parents to the school to move and play and learn some of the healthy information and play information that they can take home and then reinforce what's happening at school?

Appreciate that. It wasn't even a minute, so thank you. Any other members of the public who'd like to comment, please?

Thank you. And yeah, I'm over 50 as well. So I do want to say thank you for this opportunity to be able to share about this as a educator in physical education. One of the things mentioned was having the proper and bringing back the testing, which is so important because, and having it, to his point, being explained and expressed to our families and how important that is. Because they're not connecting the dots and not understanding how this physical activity is working at the home as well and how it works together and for the families as well, educating them on the importance of the example of them being able to take advantage and knowing what it is for me as a parent, as a guardian, as a caregiver, providing that information for my young one within the community, within the school.

And also I wanted to add, opening the schools when they are not being used is something that I think is so important because it brings community and our schools together. So again, thank you for this opportunity to be able to share this. And my name, Sherlett Hendy Newbill, and I am a Policy Educator for LAUSD and a former physical education teacher.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. Any other members of the public? And I'd ask you, as you start, your name and your affiliation. Thank you.

Hello everyone. My name is Adriana Valenzuela. I oversee health and physical education in Los Angeles Unified School District. I am a former PE teacher, and I have been collaborating with all of our teachers and administrators to improve the state of physical education and particularly in our district.

And I just want to focus on the physical education piece in particular to what the state is doing to support physical education because I see disproportionate support in regard to funding. There's a lot of funding in regards to arts. There's a lot of funding for athletics, there's even more funding for adaptive PE, which is great. There is a lot of emphasis on play and after school, but the physical education teacher, specifically at the early grades, where it's even more important to create movers out of the little ones, it's not necessarily supported.

The credentialing requirements for an elementary teacher only require one course, one course in child development, which does not give any elementary teacher the skill to competently support and promote these lifelong skills that are important. And because I want to make sure that the credential teacher is given the proper training and credit because they need it.

They have this huge responsibility, as you've seen, they have a huge role in this. So I just want to lobby for their support and for the specific earmarking of physical education so that when it does go to the local control formula, it does make it to where it's intended to go.

I appreciate that. Thank you. Well put. Thank you. Next, please.

Hello. My name is Matthew Bassett. I am a former physical education teacher with just over 22 years of service. I'm currently working with the districts in LA County at the Office of Education helping support their physical education programs. I would like to encourage you, as we talk about some reform with the updating of our standards and the framework and also the assessments that have been given only in fitness, that we want to expand upon it to reach out. There are some amazing teachers around the state doing amazing things.

There's an organization out there that oversees us. They're called the California Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. CAHPERD is there to help us become better teachers, and I would love to see that you would invite CAHPERD, as an organization, to have a seat at the table to explain some of the awesome things that are happening in our state.

The people who are really invoking positive change in the lives of their students and creating a positive learning environment. And they would be the ones that could help organize a team, a committee, a group of individuals that can help change, help change our students' futures for the better. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anybody else? Yes, please. Welcome.

Hi, my name is Diana Medel. I'm also a Boys and Girls Club alumni, and we have a club, so I'll definitely invite you for the alumni club. I attended the Boys and Girls Clubs when I was young, and that's where I first learned about performance and dance.

And now I really just can't, you know, stop moving my feet when I hear a beat. So I'm grateful for that. It was just a great opportunity for me to learn that dance was another avenue to express my emotions, express my feelings, and also learn how to make friends in a new country.

I am so appreciative of each and every one of you for hosting this. I think we have been screaming about this from a rooftop, and it's really great to finally hear that there are reports, there are solutions that are being talked about. Additionally, just want to thank you for allowing us to bring these programs to LAUSD school students. We have a clubhouse in the City of Carson. We are so proud to be able to bring play to each and every one of them in the City of Carson.

But I do want to touch on some of the stuff that was mentioned, specifically the part of drop off, where there is drop off. So some of these funding sources like ELO-P and ACES, they don't reach our high school students. And I'm not saying to remove funding from this space to move to the other, but I think we need to find some creative solutions to make sure that there is equity.

When we brought some of our students to Sacramento, visited with Senator Cuevas and Bradford, they learned that they were not getting the same funding that their peers were. And our students were upset, rightfully so. And so we're using also this as an avenue to educate them on advocacy and how they can support each other in their community.

And the last thing I'll share is about partnerships that are very, very critical. We have to come up with some partnership solutions between cities, between foundations, between nonprofits, and our government elected officials to make sure that we're catching all of the students that are falling through the cracks, and Boys and Girls Clubs is more than happy to jump on in support with that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other members of the public like to comment? Okay, seeing none. To my colleagues, any brief words to close?

I just want to say thank you so much for the organizers of today's events and all of the presenters. Just learned an incredible amount, I think a whole 360 view of this issue. Looking forward to more partnership. Looking forward to getting a soccer field up in the Baldwin Hills Kenneth Hahn park area.

We're working together with Renata on that and allies. But you know, what I'm taking away from this, and you gave great takeaways, Renata. But this is about our future and how healthy we will be, how disciplined we will be, what kind of relationships we can build as a community, as California. So I think this is so much of a priority, and you've shined a light on it today in a way that helps us understand why this issue needs to be prioritized. And I want to just say thank you so much for everyone who participated.

Thank you.

And I just echo just what my colleague said and just say thank you. And I think today has stressed the importance of movement, regardless of whether it's through sports, through dance, through just walking and exercising, and what it does to our overall well being, and how it helps us developed and the interaction that is required there.

So I just want to say thank you. I would just only add that I didn't hear anything about golf. And as a golfer, really, I started a junior golf program, and I would love to see a lot more young folks involved in that, too, because it's a lot of exercise. A lot of people don't think that as a sport, but it is very strenuous, as Ms. Simril will tell you. Mr. Fisher has learned since his NBA days. So just want to add that, that we have started a junior golf program and want to encourage young folks to experience that as well. So, thank you.

Thank you. And so let me, for my part as the Chair of the Committee, thank you so much to all of the panelists. And as my colleague said, this is an important conversation. And there is a reflex in legislative circles to minimize, or often even dismiss, the importance of play, of physical education as we deal with all of the other pressing issues that confront California. But as you've heard from our panelists and other witness today, you know, play is so important as a foundation for personal development, for healthy growth.

And as Senator Bradford and I were discussing during the break. You know, quite often we get caught up at the legislative level in kind of the intricacies of things and all these acronyms you've heard today, LCAP, LCFF, ELAP, CDE, the supplemental, ACES. And you can lose sight of what is actually important.

And what's important is play. To give students, over the course of a day, over the course of a year, opportunities for the kinds of outlets and development that otherwise not only won't be had, but that are so complementary to everything else that we're trying to do in education. And as Renata mentioned, it's crucial.

And as I would add, it is urgent. And one thing that we can't do as a Legislature is develop more five year plans. Because every five year plan excludes five years of kids who need the attention, the resources, urgently. So with that, I am really grateful. We will take that with us. I fully intend to do some legislation next year that is squarely aimed at solving some of these problems. I thank everyone here for your participation. I want to thank Derek Fisher, who stayed way longer than I expected. A five time NBA champion.

And be careful, sir, we may invite you back up to Sacramento to be a witness as we do some legislation. But to Renata and to Fernando at LA84, to everybody who helped. To Kordell Hampton on my staff, thank you. And I look forward to continuing this conversation with all of you. And thank you to my colleagues as well. And with that, this hearing of the Education Committee is adjourned.