eeGuidance: Advancing Environmental & Outdoor Education Using COVID Relief Funds

This two-part webinar series led by the North American Association for Environmental Education and the Affiliate Network (including KACEE) covers the eeGuidance for educators and administrators on how to advocate for ESSER (elementary and secondary school emergency relief) funds to be used for outdoor and environmental education in your own school and school district.

All the tools needed to get started you will find below.

Contact KACEE with questions

7/26/2021: Community Forum: Advancing Environmental & Outdoor Education Using COVID Relief Funds

Thanks to all who joined NAAEE and the Affiliate Network for a Community Forum on Advancing Environmental & Outdoor Education Using COVID Relief Funds. A PDF of the slide deck used during the presentations is attached and you can access the advocacy resources that we reviewed here.

In addition to begin (or continue) reaching out to your state, district, and school contacts about using ESSER funds for specific environmental and outdoor education activities outlined in the resource package, we encourage you to:

• Invite others to join this advocacy effort: https://forms.gle/AN2Yw4SqqQYpctd66

• Share your outreach success stories: https://forms.gle/DcU97uSHK3scJXhu9

7/26 Call Slide Deck:

Advancing Environmental & Outdoor Learning Using Federal, State, and Local Funding.pdf

Download PDF • 10.41MB

9/30/2021: eeGuidance: Thriving Schools Using Outdoor and Environmental Learning

Thank you to all who participated in the September 30th webinar, eeGuidance: Thriving Schools Using Outdoor and Environmental Learning. Our speakers shared a ton of important information and resources, which are compiled here. The presentation slides are attached.

Additional resources were shared by our speakers—

• Dr. Nicole Ardoin provided an overview of the academic research findings on the benefits of environmental and outdoor education programs:

  • https://naaee.org/eepro/research/eeworks/student-outcomes

• Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Washington provided information about allowable uses of funds in the Every Student Succeeds Act, including environmental education and environmental literacy programs:

  • U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) – Well-Rounded Education Programs

    • https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-discretionary-grants-support-services/well-rounded-education-programs/

  • U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) – Safe and Supportive Schools Programs

    • https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-formula-grants/safe-supportive-schools/

• Program Lead for K-12 Stimulus Funds Britt Jung walked through the broad flexibilities afforded to states and local education agencies in using federal COVID relief funds to support student success, health, and social emotional learning:

  • FAQs: https://oese.ed.gov/files/2021/05/ESSER.GEER_.FAQs_5.26.21_745AM_FINALb0cd6833f6f46e03ba2d97d30aff953260028045f9ef3b18ea602db4b32b1d99.pd

  • ESSER Resources: https://oese.ed.gov/offices/american-rescue-plan/american-rescue-plan-elementary-and-secondary-school-emergency-relief/resources/

• We heard from three school system leaders who shared exemplars for the integration of environmental and outdoor learning across a school district. Grace Manubay, environmental literacy coordinator for the Office of the State Superintendent for Education in Washington, DC shared a link to resources compiled on the OSSE site: https://osse.dc.gov/page/outdoor-learning-resources

• NAAEE and several state Affiliate leaders provided resources to help state and local school administrators and advocates make the case for using a portion of COVID relief funds for environmental and outdoor learning: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qqRQAbvMu4uZflxjP5qA0g0VnxEykouY/view

• All who are interested in staying connected on this topic are invited to complete a short survey: https://forms.gle/kjg21gtyWnAqSeMD8

WEBINAR.eeGUIDANCE.Thriving Schools.docx

Download DOCX • 472KB

7/26 Call Slide Deck:

Thriving Schools Using Environmental & Outdoor Learning Full Presentation.pdf

Download PDF • 10.36MB

Email Laura Downey at ldowney@kacee.org for questions or more information!