The Presidential Fitness Test could return to Virginia public schools as early as next fall, as part of an executive order Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed last week.
Under Executive Order 55, the Virginia Department of Education is tasked with providing school districts with the necessary guidance to implement the physical test. The goal is for local school systems to start using the test by the start of the next school year.
The order also creates a Presidential Fitness Test Task Force, which will help with implementation plans.
“We’re not just mandating this,” Virginia Education Secretary Aimee Guidera said. “We’re actually, as we do with everything, working in partnership with our local school divisions to provide them the resources, tools, information, best practices, so that they have help about what are best practices out there and how do we roll this out.”
The step comes months after President Donald Trump announced plans to reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test for public school students. The test features a timed 1-mile run, situps, pullups or pushups and a sit-and-reach test.
WTOP has contacted Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger for comment on whether she intends to keep the plan for public schools to use the test in place.
Meanwhile, Guidera said, based on 2023 data, 38% of kids from ages 10 to 17 were either overweight or obese. Many are spending time on their phones and on social media sites, and “they are sitting and living in a two-minute, two-dimensional world, rather than getting outside, moving, exercising, playing team sports.”
As part of the executive order, the task force will create a report with recommendations and a way for school divisions in the state to explain whether and how they’ve implemented the Presidential Fitness Test.
Babur Lateef, chair of the Prince William County School Board, said the school system supports wellness and physical activity and the division will “monitor the work of the Presidential Fitness Task Force, and closely review recommendations once they are made available.”
A spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools said in a statement that the division hasn’t yet received guidance on implementing the Presidential Fitness Test. However, the statement said, students in fourth through 10th grades complete the optional Virginia wellness fitness test, “which satisfies Virginia Standards of Learning requirements and provides VDOE with crucial youth health data.”
Guidera, the education secretary, said states made changes to stop using the Presidential Fitness Test in 2012.
Asked whether there may be pushback from some Virginia school systems about the test, Guidera said, “I’ve got data to push back and say this is the right thing to do. The data shows us that our kids are healthier. They’re ready to study and sit still and listen better after that physical activity. And as a mom, I just know this is the right thing to do.”
WTOP’s Anne Kramer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Virginia governor signs executive order to bring presidential fitness test back to schools
