§ 803. Instruction in physical education and kindred subjects. 1. All
pupils above the age of eight years in all elementary and secondary
schools, shall receive as part of the prescribed courses of instruction
therein such physical education under the direction of the commissioner
of education as the regents may determine. Such courses shall be
designed to aid in the well-rounded education of pupils and in the
development of character, citizenship, physical fitness, health and the
worthy use of leisure. Pupils above such age attending the public
schools shall be required to attend upon such prescribed courses of
instruction.

2. The board of education or trustees of every school district
regularly employing twenty or more teachers shall employ a teacher or
teachers qualified and duly licensed under the regulations of the
regents to give such instruction; in every other district of the state,
they shall require such instruction to be given by the teacher or
teachers regularly employed to give instruction in other subjects or by
a teacher or teachers qualified and duly licensed under the regulations
of the regents.

3. The boards of education or trustees of two or more contiguous
districts in the same supervisory district, however, may join in the
employment of a teacher qualified and duly licensed under the
regulations of the regents to give such instruction; and the salary of
such teacher and the expenses incurred on account of such instruction
shall be apportioned by the district superintendent among such districts
according to the assessed valuation thereof, and as so apportioned shall
be a charge upon each of such districts.

4. Similar courses of instruction shall be prescribed and maintained
in private schools in the state and all pupils in such schools over
eight years of age shall attend upon such courses; and if such courses
are not so established and maintained in any private school, attendance
upon instruction in such school shall not be deemed substantially
equivalent to instruction given to children of like ages in the public
school or schools of the city or district in which the child resides.

5. It shall be the duty of the regents to adopt rules determining the
subjects to be included in courses of physical education provided for in
this section, the period of instruction in each of such courses, the
qualifications of teachers, and the attendance upon such courses of
instruction.

6. The physical education hereinbefore provided for, may be given,
when practicable, in any armory of the state where such armory is within
convenient distance from the school, and at such times and in such
manner as not to interfere with the regular military uses of such
armory. The commanding officer in charge of any such armory shall, upon
application made by any board of education or trustees of the several
cities and school districts within the state, permit access to any such
armory, for the purposes herein mentioned.