Rhode Island Code of Regulations
Title 200 - Board of Education
Chapter 20 - Council on Elementary and Secondary Education
Subchapter 20 - Educator Quality and Certification
Part 5 - Regulations for Approval of Non-Public Schools in Rhode Island
Section 200-RICR-20-20-5.3 - Time in School

A. The period of attendance of students in the non-public schools shall be substantially equal to that required by law in public schools. Public schools are required to establish and maintain a one hundred eighty (180) day school year exclusive of holidays. (R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 16-2-2 and 16-19-2) A non-public school may establish a school year that is the equivalent of one hundred eighty (180) days through the use of longer school days in accordance with R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-2-2. If longer school days are used to provide the equivalent of one hundred eighty (180) school days, no fewer than nine hundred ninety (990) hours of actual instructional time must be provided in a single school year.

B. A kindergarten day shall not be less than two and one-half (2 1/2) hours. An elementary and secondary school day shall not be less than five and one half (5 1/2) hours (three hundred and thirty (330) minutes) of actual school work excluding lunch, recess periods, study halls, homeroom, common planning time, student passing time, pre and post school teacher time and any other time that is not actual instructional time.

C. A secondary school class period shall be sufficiently flexible to allow the school to schedule classes four or five times weekly or to provide large group instruction with long or short periods as the program demands, However, a minimum of 200 minutes weekly in class shall normally-be required for each subject for which credit (for graduation) is allowed.

D. All students in grades one through twelve shall receive instruction in health and physical education pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-22-4.

E. All students in grades one through twelve shall receive instruction in health and physical education under such rules and regulations as the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Department of Health may prescribe or approve during periods which shall be substantially equal to an average of at least twenty (20) minutes in each school day.