DES MOINES — When the Des Moines school district announced this fall it was going to make it tougher for students to waive their physical education classes by scaling back all but a handful of exemptions, it caught students and parents by surprise.
It also countered a national trend.
Despite growing concerns about obesity among young people, the number of states that allow students to waive or substitute physical education classes has grown from 27 to 32 since 2006, according to Paula Kun, a spokeswoman for the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE
