Make the Case

Watch the October 4, 2024, recording of the National League of Cities and Children & Nature Network in-depth look at the new report “How Green Schoolyards Create Economic Value.” The conversation, moderated by NLC’s Dr. Robert Blaine, primarily featured report author Rob Grunewald, with additional insights and perspective from Jordan Twardy from the City of Dearborn and Priya Cook from C&NN.

This slide deck on the economic benefits of green schoolyards can be used to support your own case-making efforts. Kindly credit them to Rob Grunewald in your presentations.

This report, authored by former Federal Reserve economist Rob Grunewald, investigates the economic returns that can accompany investments in greening school grounds. Grunewald based much of his report on data from a study of a large-scale green schoolyard project in Denver, Colorado, that converted 99 traditional elementary schoolyards to green schoolyards over a 12-year period.

This Digest explores the community and environmental benefits of green schoolyards.

The AISD Educational Specifications, or “Ed Specs,” are design standards and concepts used by the school District to guide new school facility construction and major space renovations to create engaging and effective learning environments. School Districts are required by state law to adopt Educational Specifications.

These Guidelines outline the design principles, components, materials, and processes needed to plan, implement, and manage outdoor play and learning environments that foster climate resiliency, community cohesion, health, and nature connection.

This resource document supports cities in how to make the case to their city or district leaders to use funding to support green schoolyards. It is a communications and messaging focused toolkit with links to templates, press releases and case study examples.

This special issue focuses on the physical health benefits of both passive and active forms of nature engagement. Also discussed are several ideas about how health-care professionals are tapping into the health-promoting powers of nature engagement.

The following article was published in the September 2020 issue of Green Schoolyards Catalyst Quarterly, a publication of the...

Key strategies and policy tools to advance racial inclusion and equitable growth in cities.

Advocacy and planning resources for improving walkability can increase community access to green schoolyards.

Green schoolyards provide many proven benefits for kids, from enhancing academic achievement to promoting health and wellness.

Lessons learned, templates, and agreements for joint-use of school grounds in your community.

This lecture series highlights school districts innovating outdoor education spaces with a focus on storm water management.

Comprehensive design intervention focused on promoting healthy outdoor environments at child care centers.

This case study summarizes research findings about the positive outcomes of outdoor learning and shares schoolyard-learning tips and essentials for educators.

A how-to guide for developing pathways for play to enhance children’s health, tapping all forms of network infrastructure from greenways and sidewalks to mixed use developments and pocket play spaces.

Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board uses equity-driven metrics for selecting projects in neighborhood parks.

This project is an evolving work. So far, it includes the views and opinions of more than 100 contributors, which do not necessarily reflect the official position of any individual or organization. It is now ready to evolve with your input.

New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection leads multiple agency partners in the design, construction and maintenance of sustainable green infrastructure on schoolyards and other spaces.

A guide with real-life examples, best practices and practical steps to help agencies implement a wellness policy and create sustainable site changes.

Voters continuously approve a ballot initiative for bond funding to green schoolyards in San Francisco.

Omaha Public School’s guide for reducing storm water on school grounds, including lesson plans for teachers and maintenance resources for administrators

Park walk ability scores and green infrastructure are used as programmatic and funding strategies for schoolyard transformation.

This guide offers five key strategies for reducing urban heat islands, including strategic vegetation and building practices.

With funding from the U.S. Forest Service, Milwaukee’s Green Schools program reduces storm water runoff, transforms asphalt surfaces, and provides valuable shade canopy where children play.

Converging evidence from diverse fields offers causal support for nature’s impact on learning, development and environmental stewardship.

Process map for building successful–and sustainable–green schoolyards programs

This research digest outlines new research that provides a rationale for focusing on children’s equitable access to nature.

Get2Green supports county-wide efforts to engage Pre-K-12 students in environmental stewardship, incorporate sustainability in the classroom, schoolyard greening throughout the district.

A rural green schoolyards program, Learning Landscapes takes advantage of preserved adjacent property and develops school grounds with trails, outdoor classroom areas and native plantings

Out Teach provides professional development, mentoring and modeling for schools with outdoor classrooms. Their program is highly successful and improves teacher and student motivation.

This case study highlights the program and funding that has allowed all schools in Santa Cruz, CA to have garden-based education as part of its district learning goals.

Over the past 30 years, SPARK has built more than 200 community parks in 17 school districts in Harris County, Texas, including neighborhoods where no parks existed.

Tips, tools and resources to help you grow green schoolyards in your community.

Baltimore City Public Schools has a robust and comprehensive approach to its green schools initiative that supports the health and well-being of students, families and the community.

This case study narrates the evolution of green schoolyards in San Francisco, and their supporting programming including Americorps-funded educators at many schools.

William Cramp Community School (K-5) serves as a prototype for greening schoolyards in Philadelphia.

This report makes the case for including schools in federal infrastructure funding to close the education equity gap in the U.S.

Use this guide to gain a better understanding of how to advocate about school sustainability with school boards.

Green schoolyards inspire children to be more active, attentive and inquisitive, while decreasing stress and anxiety, elevating mood, and improving social emotional development. Green, multi-functional schoolyards also inherently serve as an ideal venue for hands-on learning across subjects, building knowledge through sensory exploration and experiential discovery. A talk about how to successfully activate the schoolyard to help students and teachers reap all of these benefits (and many more) during school hours.

This webinar presents research and strategies for increasing equitable access to nature, including C&NN’s Cities Connecting Children to Nature, Natural Leaders and Green Schoolyards initiatives.

Guide to integrating community input into green infrastructure projects, featuring eight key steps.

Evidence-based infographic highlighting how green schoolyards can improve academic outcomes.

This action-oriented guide supports local, state, and federal officials in planning for health at all levels to address determinants of chronic disease.

Promising practices for water management that promotes equity for communities most impacted by economic stress caused by climate change.

This declaration from the International School Grounds Alliance (ISGA) shows how beneficial risk is an important component of schoolyard design and use.

Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board uses equity-driven metrics to evaluate regional parks and trails, and ensure that investments are equitably targeted and support the MPRB’s Comprehensive Plan.

Eight actions for leaders to take to ensure that children in cities have access to play in nature.

This case study chronicles the collaborative process of choosing a school and the types of green infrastructure to implement on a schoolyard, outlining a planning and implementation process.

List of 55 priority actions including proposals for policy and practice reforms at the local, state, and federal levels, to help systematically scale green schoolyards.

This guide is intended to encourage partnerships between park agencies and stormwater agencies aimed at promoting the use of green infrastructure on park lands.

A look at how health equity can a local lever for green schoolyard program development.

Data to help state decision makers incentivize and promote shared used agreements in schools to grow healthier kids and communities.

National guidance, considerations and advocacy strategies for green schoolyards as a place for essential recess time that promotes children’s physical fitness, healthy growth and development.

An interactive tool and index that ranks America’s 100 largest cities and their park systems.

This guide, created through a public review process, marries professional standards with environmental educators’ best practices in community engagement, including case studies and a 25-item toolkit.

This guidebook outlines benefits, planning process and types of green storm water infrastructure on school grounds.

Case studies of green schoolyards as public places with the potential to improve public health for individuals and the community as a whole.

This report focuses on the potential benefits and unintended consequences of state policies specifically focused on Out-of-School-Time (OST) programs.

Infographic illustrating the research on academic benefits of children’s nature connection.

This summary of the Natural Connections project in England, which followed students and teachers in 125 schools over four years, provides a compelling case and proven strategies for outdoor learning.

Austin’s Nature Equity Score is a data-based decision-making tool that helps city and community leaders determine where to pilot green schoolyard projects.

Examples of how Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) can reduce violence on school campuses.

Why do children need green school grounds? This short, compelling video can help you make your case.

Based on a decade of data, this website documents the benefits associated with participation in and public support for afterschool programs.

Case studies from six cities distill important factors for success, including partnerships, funding, policies and documented impact that wins support.

The FWS Schoolyard Habitat program allows teachers and students learn about the outdoors in a broad, interdisciplinary context. through building habitat for wildlife.

Information about how to start a school garden and green schoolyard projects as vital learning tools for students.

This fact sheet introduces shared use as a strategy for reducing health disparities by creating equitable opportunities for recreation in parks and schoolyards.

Growing food on your green schoolyard? Follow these protocols for safe and healthy harvest and food service.

Evidence-based infographic highlighting how green schoolyards can increase children’s physical activity.

Evidence-based infographic highlighting how green schoolyards can enhance children’s mental health, social emotional learning, and well-being.

Evidence-based infographic highlighting how green schoolyards can encourage and offer a variety of options for beneficial play.

This report highlights environmental literacy plans in nine U.S. states and offers recommendations for successful plan development.

An Arkansas state tax on tobacco funds partnerships that promote physical activity in schools.

A roadmap for the City and its residents to make Chicago a healthier, more vibrant place to live and work, including green schoolyards as a strategy.

In this report, TreePeople focuses on a LA Unified School District Water Partnership project, examining collaborative options that could allow for increased stormwater capture projects on LAUSD campuses.

This report makes the case that green schoolyards can be part of a whole-school sustainability framework that aligns individuals and departments to maximize the school’s teaching capacity.

Report highlights community and school gardens in Chicago reduced stormwater runoff, resulting in better water quality, reduced urban heat islands, enhanced learning environments and stronger communities.

A call to action from leaders in the field to place the nature-health connection at the center of research, design, and decision-making.

This report describes Y-PLAN methodology, which builds the capacity of young people to contribute their own data and insights to the planning and policymaking process.

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model coordinates policy, process and practice to improve learning and health.

Voter-approved city bond funding pays for schoolyard transformation program in Denver, CO.

This brief document shares strategies and critical considerations for authentically engaging community in planning a green schoolyard.

This guide outlines concepts and components refined by the Boston Schoolyard Initiative over several years, including community-based planning and design.

This guide provides information, examples and considerations for working with public agencies and developing partnerships with public schools to develop school gardens.

Advocacy tips for local policy change from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.

Assessment helps community members work with school districts and municipal officials to promote policies that encourage schoolyard improvements, shared use and ongoing maintenance.

A guide for transforming ordinary asphalt and turf grass schoolyards into vibrant ecosystems

Ten reasons schools should consider green schoolyards for furthering educational goals and objectives.

The D.C. Healthy Schools Act supports healthy school meals, locally-grown food, local wellness policies, healthy vending, physical activity, health education and more.

Educational resource and training tool for integrating nature into new play environments or retrofitting existing play areas at parks and schools.

Issue brief about how green schoolyards can maximize social, economic and ecological benefits in America’s capitol.

Prevent vandalism on your schoolyard with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), used by architects, city planners, landscape and interior designers, and law enforcement to create a safer community.