Living Schoolyards Act Lecture Series

Exploring the Benefits to Education,
Climate, Health, and Community

Green Schoolyards America will host a free five-part webinar series on the wide-ranging benefits of the Living Schoolyards Act. In each session, experts from a variety of disciplines will highlight a group of benefits that living schoolyards—and this legislation when enacted—bring to children and communities across the nation. The sessions will provide information, resources, and ideas, and will help build a movement to pass this crucial legislation. We hope you will join us and invite your colleagues!

The Living Schoolyards Act (S-4993) is groundbreaking legislation that was introduced in the United States Senate in Fall 2022 by Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM). When enacted, the bill will direct important federal resources toward transforming school grounds into living schoolyards—richly layered outdoor environments that strengthen local ecological systems while providing place-based, hands-on learning resources for students of all ages. The Living Schoolyards Act is slated to be reintroduced into the U.S. House and Senate in the first quarter of 2023.

 

Office of Senator Heinrich

 

Lecture Series Information

Webinar Format

Each webinar in this lecture series will feature engaging presentations from guest speakers and technical experts who will focus on the day’s theme (noted below) and discuss how the Living Schoolyards Act will allow children across the country to access the transformative benefits of living schoolyards. The lectures will be recorded and published below.

Dates and Topics 

The webinars will be held from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM PT / 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM ET on each of the dates below:

  • Wednesday, March 8 — Equity, Educational, and Academic Benefits

  • Tuesday, March 28 — Mental and Physical Health Benefits

  • Thursday, April 20 — Climate and Extreme Heat, Habitat and Ecological Systems, Stormwater Management

  • Wednesday, May 10 — Community Benefits, Green Jobs, Living Schoolyards Month

  • Thursday, May 25 — Schoolyard Design, Green Infrastructure, Green Building Standards

Accessibility

All meetings will occur online via Zoom. Attendees will have access to live captioning and a live transcript. All webinars will be recorded and available to the public on our website. 

Registration

We hope you’ll join us for this exciting online series! Participation is free. Click here to register.