Safe Return to Play & Recess Guidelines

  1. Updates

Playworks is helping schools continue to reimagine recess.

For the past 24 years, Playworks has partnered with elementary schools to help kids stay active and build valuable skills through play. As schools prepare re-opening plans, we want to help provide resources for implementing both in-school and virtual play or recess experiences. We developed Recess Guidelines to include options for what recess could look like based on CDC and state guidelines as of July 2020. We know states, districts, and individual schools are developing many plans for reopening, and no matter what variation of online or in-person experiences they offer next school year, Playworks is here to help.

View the Recess Guidelines


COVID-19 is changing the way we move, interact, and play on or off the playground.

As we move toward a new school year that will be impacted by COVID-19, we need to approach play differently. This game guide will help with transitioning to in-person play and is appropriate for adaptations of the school experience for kids. It uses Playworks best practices and games and The Aspen Institute’s Return to Play Guidelines to break down the return to play into three phases by using a stoplight system to define risk categories. The recommendations below will help you understand how games can safely be integrated as kids, teachers, and school staff go back to school.

Risk categories are assigned relative to other ways of participating in that game or activity, based on the public health and scientific understandings of COVID-19 and how it can be transmitted as of July 2020. Activities are segmented into three types of risk posed both to participants and others.

 

Download the Safe Return to Play Guide

 

For more information about Playworks or any of our programs please contact info@playworks.org.

More Updates


December 29, 2025

30 Years of Play, Leadership, and Community: Why Your Support Matters This Season ›

In 1995, Playworks Founder Jill Vialet sat down with an elementary school principal who shared a problem that would change everything: “What I really need help with is recess. Can…

December 17, 2025

How Play Is Transforming Community at 112th Street Elementary ›

A Conversation with Principal Hernandez At Playworks Southern California, we know that play is more than just recess, it’s a catalyst for connection, joy, and community building. No one embodies…

December 10, 2025

Investing in Resilience: Playworks Southern California Receives Grant from Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation to Expand Health  ›

In a powerful show of community support, Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation has awarded more than $13.5 million in grants to organizations working to uplift and transform lives.  Among the…