Schools already measure how well children read and do math. They may soon be measuring their weight, through twice yearly checks designed to curb childhood obesity.
A bill introduced Thursday in the Georgia Senate would require schools to check students' body mass index, a combination of height and weight that tells whether a child is at a healthy weight.
Sponsored by Sen. Joseph Carter (R-Tifton), the bill also would require school districts to follow state regulations on offering physical education classes in elementary schools.
If school districts don't comply with the new rules, they'd be labeled as "unhealthy school zones" on a state Web site that measures school performance.
"Our obesity rates are significantly higher than other states, and our children are more seriously affected," Carter said at a news conference. "It is time for Georgia to join other states in this fight."
Georgia ranks 12th in the nation for childhood obesity, according to the public health advocacy group Trust for America's Health.
Nearly 37 percent of the state's children are too heavy, according to a study funded by the state Department of Human Resources.
Previous attempts to address childhood obesity through legislation have failed in Georgia.
To promote this bill, an occasionally uneasy coalition of health advocacy groups, doctors, athletes, and food and beverage industry trade associations lined up around Carter on Thursday at a news conference.
The bill focuses on physical activity and does not address nutrition, another key component in maintaining a healthy weight.
Carter said he believed that schools would also look at the type of foods they provide to students as a way to keep their students' weight in check, once they had a way to track results.
Eight of the 10 U.S. states with the most overweight children are in the South.
Some of those states have started requiring schools to measure BMI, including Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina and West Virginia.
Others have tightened nutrition standards for what foods can be sold or served at school.
Arkansas was the first state to implement such a rule, in 2003.
Since then, childhood obesity rates have held steady there, rather than continue their slow increase, according to Arkansas Surgeon General Joseph Thompson.
The bill is designed not to add another mandate for schools, Carter said, but to give them incentives to address students' health.
He hopes that gives it a better chance of passing than a 2006 bill he introduced that would have required more PE for Georgia elementary and middle schoolers.
He changed the requirement to a suggestion after fine arts teachers protested that their classes might be cut to fit in more PE time.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution