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Lawmakers Consider Options For Dealing With Child Obesity Frankfort (AP) -- As state health officials search for solutions to Kentucky's child obesity problems, state lawmakers are considering options that include requiring pupils to take physical education classes. The suggestion, floated before a legislative subcommittee Wednesday, called for requiring students in elementary schools to have 150 minutes per week of physical education classes. High schools and middle schools should be required to offer pupils 225 minutes of physical education classes each week, Carol Ryan, a health expert at Northern Kentucky University, told the subcommittee on families and children. State law currently doesn't mandate that elementary and middle schools offer physical education classes. High school students have until they graduate to take a 1/2 credit class in physical education and a 1/2 credit health class. Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said he thought that wasn't enough time in gym class for high school students. "It just seems to me that this mandate of half a credit is pretty weak," Thayer said. "I mean they could take it in the first semester of their freshman year and be done with it." Still, mandating students to take gym class doesn't necessarily translate into improved health, said Kyna Koch, an associate commissioner with the Department of Education. "Mandating physical education does not mean that students are going to get the appropriate amount of physical activity that they need," she said. |