Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 19 amends the Education Code to allow the State Board of Education to require public school students in kindergarten through grade six to participate in up to 30 minutes of daily physical activity as part of a school district's physical education curriculum or through structured activity in a daily recess period. The bill also requires each school district's board of trustees to appoint a local school health education advisory council to help ensure that local community values are reflected in the district's health education instruction, and it deletes a previous requirement for the appointment of a similar advisory council whose more narrowly focused duties were primarily to make recommendations regarding a district's human sexuality instruction.

            The duties of the new advisory council include recommending (1) the number of hours of health education instruction to be provided; (2) a health education curriculum that may include a program to prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, and Type II diabetes; and (3) appropriate grade levels and methods for delivery of human sexuality instruction. The bill requires the Texas Education Agency to make available to each district a coordinated health program designed to prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, and Type II diabetes in elementary school children, and it requires each district to participate in training provided by the various regional education service centers to implement the program.