Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025
Does Wisconsin require daily exercise for K-12 students?
Wisconsin doesn’t require daily exercise for students.
Physical education must be given weekly to students in kindergarten through sixth grade and, for older middle school students, with “sufficient frequency and instructional time to meet the objectives outlined in the district’s curriculum plan.”
High school students must follow a curriculum “designed to build lifelong fitness habits.”
In 2024, GOP lawmakers as part of a child obesity task force introduced legislation to require 180 minutes of weekly “physical activity” for K-8 students. One lawmaker said the aim was to require movement, such as playing tennis, rather than teaching tennis.
The bill passed the Assembly but not the Senate.
On July 27, former Gov. Scott Walker called for a 60-minute daily exercise minimum.
In 2022-23, 18.4% of Wisconsin children ages 6-17 were obese, the 16th highest rate in the U.S.
Childhood obesity that lasts into adulthood can result in conditions such as diabetes, liver disease and high blood pressure.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction: Email
- Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction: Email
- Speaker's Task Force on Childhood Obesity: Scope Summary
- Wisconsin Legislature: 2023 Assembly Bill 1016
- WPR: New bill requires Wisconsin students get 3 hours of movement per week
- Wisconsin Legislature: Assembly Bill 1016 actions
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: State of Childhood Obesity
- American Academy of Pediatrics: Childhood Obesity: A Complex Disease
- KFF: Obesity Rates Among Children: A Closer Look at Implications for Children Covered by Medicaid
- Johns Hopkins University Child & Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative: Child and Family Health Measures: Wisconsin
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
See all fact briefs
Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
Learn MoreLatest Fact Briefs
Are aborted fetal cells used to make the MMR vaccine?
Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025
Is Wisconsin facing a structural deficit in the 2027-29 state budget?
Friday, Aug. 1, 2025
Is violent crime in the US higher than 25 years ago?
Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2025