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Background . Colorado passed House Bill 11-1069 in 2011 requiring all public elementary schools to provide students with a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity (PA) per school day (Physical Activity Expectation in Schools, 2011). The purpose of this article is to describe the results of a 3-year initiative to increase opportunities for PA and to provide recommendations for school health practitioners implementing similar programming. Intervention. In 2014, 13 school districts were funded to increase student PA during school hours and before and after school hours. Intervention activities spanned all components of the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program framework. An evaluation was conducted to estimate the number of schools providing at least 30 minutes of PA a day. A mixed methods evaluation design was implemented that included tracking the number of minutes of PA provided before, during, and after school and semistructured interviews with school health coordinators. Results. In Year 1, an average of 48 minutes of PA were provided per day. By the end of year 3, the average minutes of PA doubled to 90 minutes per day. Teachers and staff identified professional development and administrator support as key components to incorporating more PA throughout the school day. Conclusions. Health promotion interventions in schools can increase access to PA opportunities for students. Sustainability of PA efforts in schools is dependent on funding to support professional development for teachers and staff and building administrative support for school-based PA.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate an unstructured and a structured program designed to increase physical activity (PA). The unstructured program increased the amount of equipment during recess, whereas the structured program introduced activities to students., Methods: PA was observed using the System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY) in two school districts in Colorado. Researchers recorded baseline and follow-up observations for sedentary activity, moderate PA, and vigorous PA, as well as for available equipment for the unstructured program. Observations from schools were aggregated for data analyses at the district level., Results: For the program increasing equipment, moderate PA and vigorous PA increased, while sedentary behavior decreased. For the structured program, moderate PA and vigorous PA did not increase, whereas sedentary behaviors increased following the program., Conclusions: Other variables are likely influencing student PA during recess, such as teachers' interaction with students or the fidelity of the program. Results indicate that funding and implementing a program aimed at increasing PA will not necessarily accomplish that goal, and additional research should be performed to determine the best practice for increasing PA., (© 2019, American School Health Association.)

Providing opportunities for students to be physically active during the school day leads to increased academic performance, better focus, and fewer behavioral problems. As schools begin to incorporate more physical activity programming into the school day, evaluators need methods to measure how much physical activity students are being offered through this programming. Because classroom-based physical activity is often offered in 3-minute to 5-minute bouts at various times of the day, depending on the teachers' time to incorporate it, it is a challenge to evaluate this activity. This article describes a method to estimate the number of physical activity minutes provided before, during, and after school. The web-based tool can be used to gather data cost-effectively from a large number of schools. Strategies to increase teacher response rates and assess intensity of activity should be explored.

Active transportation (AT) may represent an ideal opportunity to accumulate physical activity (PA). Thus, the purpose of this study was to describe the AT profile among students from two Colorado school districts. Students completed a survey on AT resulting in a final dataset (n = 3738) from which descriptive and inferential statics were calculated. Respondents were 11.32 ± 2.82 years of age (Boys = 48.27 %; Girls = 51.73 %). Most students (87.29 %) traveled to or from school via automobile, while 11.17 % walked and 1.53 % biked. Boys rode bicycles to school significantly more (p < 0.0001) than girls, and when walking, accumulated significantly more time (p = 0.02) than females. When examining by grade level significant differences were found for days/week walking (p = 0.0002) to school and biking (p < 0.001) to school. High school students accumulated significantly (p < 0.0001) more time walking to school than middle or elementary school students. Similarly, high school students spent more time biking (p < 0.0001) to school than middle school and elementary school respondents. These findings indicate that travel to school by automobile is still the dominant mode of travel for most public school students. Further, males were generally more likely to obtain extra time in AT. Moreover, older students were more likely to engage in AT, and to spend more time during their AT.

Background: Afterschool programs are promising arenas to improve youth physical activity (PA) levels. During the school year for 2012-2013, 5 elementary schools from a low-socioeconomic status (SES) school district in southern Colorado participated in evaluation of the afterschool program entitled Keep It Moving! (KIM)., Methods: In this cross-sectional analysis we sought to evaluate the relationships among participant PA, teacher interaction, and lesson context during an unstructured afterschool PA program. Participants were third-fifth grade students enrolled in the KIM program at the 5 participating elementary schools and were assessed utilizing accelerometers and direct observation with the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT)., Results: Program participants wore the accelerometer 37.1 ± 5.4 min session(-1). Approximately half of the time was spent in light PA (LPA) and 15.7 ± 5.3 min session(-1) in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA). Game play was positively associated with LPA and negatively associated with MVPA. When teachers did not promote PA with students there was a positive association with sedentary activity (SA) and a negative association with MVPA., Conclusions: Lesson context and teacher interactions may be important factors associated with PA intensity of afterschool PA programming. Future research should address whether structured PA curricula may improve quality of afterschool PA programming., (© 2015, American School Health Association.)

Background: After-school programs may provide valuable opportunities for children to accumulate healthful physical activity (PA). This study assessed the PA of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade children in the Keep It Moving! (KIM) after-school PA program, which was implemented in an ethnically diverse and low socioeconomic status school district in Colorado Springs, Colorado., Methods: The PA of KIM participating children (N = 116) at 4 elementary schools was objectively assessed using ActiGraph accelerometers and the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT). Linear mixed-effects models or generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to compare time spent in sedentary (SED) behaviors, light PA (LPA), moderate PA (MPA), vigorous PA (VPA), and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) between genders and weight status classifications during KIM sessions., Results: Children accumulated 7.6 minutes of SED time, 26.9 minutes of LPA, and 22.2 minutes of MVPA during KIM sessions. Boys accumulated less SED time (p < .05) and LPA (p = .04) than girls, but accumulated more MPA (p = .04), VPA (p = .03), and MVPA (p = .03). Overweight/obese children accumulated more LPA (p = .04) and less VPA (p < .05) than nonoverweight children. SOFIT data indicated that children spent a considerable proportion of KIM sessions being very active (12.4%), walking (36.0%), or standing (40.3%)., Conclusion: The KIM program provides opportunities for disadvantaged children to accumulate substantial amounts of MVPA (>20 minutes per session) in an effort to meet current PA guidelines., (© 2013, American School Health Association.)