CA Senate Bill 1091

Green Schoolyards America and Trust for Public Land are pleased to sponsor CA Senate Bill 1091, along with Senator Menjivar, who introduced the bill. CA SB1091 will reduce a significant barrier to school-ground greening and make it possible for many public schools, especially the ones with less resources, to implement greening projects.

The Need

In 2022, California released “Protecting Californians from Extreme Heat: A State Action Plan to Build Community Resilience” recognizing extreme heat as one of the deadliest climate-driven hazards in California.

School-ground greening offers a way to address the climate crisis with an intersectional approach and is a critical strategy to closing the equity gap in access to nature, improving health and wellness, providing opportunities for hands-on learning, climate literacy, and workforce development.

Long term planning and sustained public funding investments are necessary to bring green schoolyards to scale across the state, and in addition, certain policy and institutional barriers need to be addressed to ensure that those investments are successful in creating green climate resilient school grounds that serve the most vulnerable children and communities.

The solution

SB 1091 will address one of such policy barriers to greening school grounds by capping the required improvements to the path of travel, beyond the greening project boundary to 20% of the adjusted construction cost for the project, in line with federal ADA law.

Read bill fact sheet

Read our letter of support

Take Action

We are currently working with partners to pass this legislation.

UPDATE: SB 1091 unanimously passed the Education Committee Hearing on April 3, 2024. Thank you to everyone who signed onto our coalition letter or sent an individual letter of support. The bill is now heading to the Senate floor!

If you have questions, reach out to sarah [at] green schoolyards [dot] org.