BP 6142.5 — Environmental Education
Section: 6000 - Instruction
Status: Active
Adopted: 2022-06-02
Policy text
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
The Governing Board recognizes that schools play a crucial role in educating students about the relationship between humans and the natural world and in preparing them to have the skills, knowledge, and principles needed to solve environmental problems. The Board believes that all students should understand ecological systems and the impact of human action on such systems, including, but not limited to, the climate crisis. The district’s environmental education program shall promote environmental literacy and shall prepare students to be stewards of natural resources and live an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.
The district’s environmental education program should be taught across the district curriculum in science, history-social science, English language arts, health, and, to the extent practicable, mathematics. Such instruction shall be aligned with state-adopted standards and curriculum frameworks and may include, but not be limited to, the interactions and interdependence of human societies and natural systems, people’s dependence and influence on natural systems, the ways that natural systems change, and how people can benefit and influence that change, the fact that there are no boundaries to prevent matter from flowing between systems, and the fact that decisions affecting resources and natural systems are complex and involve many factors.
The district’s program may also provide for active student participation in onsite resource conservation and management programs and the promotion of service-learning partnerships. The Superintendent or designee may collaborate with other local educational agencies and/or community-based organizations to enhance the curriculum and learning experiences provided to students.
The Superintendent or designee shall ensure that environment-based learning experiences are made available on an equitable basis and that the environmental literacy curriculum reflects the linguistic, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of California.
As appropriate, the Superintendent or designee shall provide professional development for teachers in the development and effective implementation of curriculum and activities inside and outside of the classroom that promote environmental literacy.
Legal
EDUCATION CODE
8700-8707 Environmental education
8720-8723 Conservation education service
8760-8773 Outdoor science, conservation, and forestry
51210 Course of study for grades 1-6
51220 Course of study for grades 7-12
51795-51797 School instructional gardens
60041 Ecological systems and their protection
PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE