Forgotten Student Needs: Providing Access to Play, Rest, Friendship, and Fun Through Recess

You may be wondering, why a themed issue on recess now? Today, school communities are coping with unprecedented challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, devasting school shootings, controversial policies related to racial and social justice that threaten hard won progress toward ensuring civil rights and preserving human dignity, and the many problems that have followed in the aftermath of all these destructive forces. Educators and school administrators appear to be leaving the field en masse. And sadly, it is harder than ever to blame them for making this choice, especially when they have so frequently been met with hostility and suspicion while serving students and families—often heroically—during historically challenging times.