What Students Lose When Recess Is Squeezed Out of the Schedule
By Jennifer Vilcarino for Edweek
While more than 100 years of research support the importance of recess for students, the fact remains that many schools do not have a restorative break in their daily schedule.
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics released new guidance on recess titled “The Crucial Role of Recess in School,” the group’s first update to its recess recommendations in nearly 13 years.
The report recommends that students get a minimum of 20 minutes of recess per day. “School and district policies should emphasize the crucial role of recess breaks for the whole child and protect the time allocated for recess to ensure all students’ right to a safe, quality recess experience every day,” the lead authors write.
But according to an EdWeek Research Center survey conducted between September and November of 2025, many students are not receiving that amount of recess.
Thirty-four percent of the 464 teachers surveyed said their students never have recess, while 40% said students get recess once a day. A different question asked how long recess lasts for students—55% said 15-20 minutes, 29% said 21-30 minutes, and 15% said less than 15 minutes.
The report shows there are many benefits to recess, including academic and social-emotional ones. New evidence shows that kids benefit from pauses in between learning—this allows their brains to retain information. Recess provides an allocated time for peer-to-peer engagement, which helps students of all ages develop skills like cooperation, communication, and leadership, said the report.
Still, education experts say recess is often overlooked. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said when people talk about recess, they focus too much on the time needed for recess.
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