On March 14, the  Center for Green Schools hosted a webinar, “Climate Change Education Across the Nation: How State Policy Is Delivering Impact,” highlighting district-level stories about the impacts of state climate legislation. The Center was joined by panelists from Ten Strands, the Maine Environmental Education Association and Our Climate, who shared their firsthand experiences creating, advocating for and implementing climate education legislation in their states.

Here are some highlights of the work being done on the ground:

1. The Center for Green Schools highlighted its forthcoming paper in partnership with the Campaign for Environmental Literacy, which profiles example legislation that supports climate change education within the formal K–12 education system and provides talking points with citations and a model climate literacy bill for advocates. The Campaign for Environmental Literacy highlighted two of the states profiled in the report, New Jersey and Washington, and their current legislation.

2. Massachusetts students from Our Climate, who were instrumental in creating the interdisciplinary climate justice education bill, spoke about their journey, which started in 2020 with drafting the legislation. Since then, students have been a driving force in pushing this bill forward. They spoke about lessons learned, from the difficulties lobbying during school hours to the lack of transparency in the legislative process. They covered what's next, such as creating a platform to drive advocacy strategy with all parties and initiating a lobbying day for teachers.  

3. In turn, the Maine Environmental Education Association spoke to the role that young people have played and the process for their pilot program to encourage climate education in Maine. Since 2021, the Nature Based Education Consortium's youth-led Climate Education Advocacy working group has met to create a funded policy that gives teachers access to climate education professional development, with a focus on equity. Although the bill faced several hurdles, young people and educators alike played a pivotal role in getting it passed in 2022.  

4. Ten Strands spoke about the foundational policies and expectations set in California, which have paved the way for the current work creating and implementing its climate change and climate justice curriculum. The project is slated to be a four- to five-year project that will provide free resources to teachers about climate change and justice, with an asynchronous training program. In addition to its newest program, Ten Strands convenes the California Environmental Literacy Initiative, a collective action network that works to make sure all students have access to high-quality environmental-based learning and shares a plethora of free resources for teachers to help them deliver programming to their students.

We thank our panelists for their inspiring stories:

Andra Yeghoian, chief innovation officer, Ten Strands
Amara Ifeji, director of policy, Maine Environmental Education Association
Jim Elder, director, Campaign for Environmental Literacy
Jonathan Lan, Our Climate, class of 2024, Weston Public Schools
Sara Karp, Our Climate, class of 2025, Acton Boxborough Regional School District

Hear the full stories from our panelist in the webcast

Climate change education in schools across the nation