Good News For Outdoor Learning

In 2025, Maine passed a bipartisan law creating Outdoor School for All, a statewide program that gives students in grades 4 through 8 an immersive three-day, two-night outdoor learning experience. Students sleep at outdoor learning centers with their classmates and spend their days using forests, shorelines, and local ecosystems as their classroom. Under the law, the program is open to students in public schools, tribal schools, and homeschool settings, and it requires a long-term study of how outdoor school affects students' emotional, educational, and career paths.

The idea and the framework are compelling, but the law passed without state funding. Before the program, fewer than 20% of Maine public school students took part in overnight outdoor programs, usually because of cost or distance, according to Chewonki, one of the program's outdoor learning centers. Fully funding the program for every eligible student would cost about $6 million a year, the Penobscot Bay Pilot reported.

So a statewide coalition of outdoor learning centers raised money from six Maine foundations to launch the program themselves, at no cost to participating schools. In its first year, Outdoor School for All reached 1,675 students from 43 schools, with seven certified providers serving 14 of Maine's 16 counties, according to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, which runs the program.

That track record caught attention. This fall, the Libra Foundation committed $1.3 million over the next two years to help the program grow. That works out to roughly $650,000 a year, about a tenth of what full funding would require. The goal is to keep proving what outdoor school can do while working toward steady public funding, so that one day every Maine student gets the chance to participate.

The case for programs like this is backed by data. In a study by the American Institutes for Research, 255 California sixth graders who attended a week of residential outdoor school raised their science scores by 27%, and those gains held six to ten weeks later. Students also scored higher on conflict resolution and cooperation. For 56% of the students, outdoor school was the first time they had ever spent time in a natural setting.

Maine has its own evidence. In a 2024 evaluation for the Maine Department of Education of outdoor education pilots in Maine schools, about two-thirds of students said outdoor learning helped them learn, and 55% said it improved their mental health.

On the national front, the federal Every Kid Outdoors program kicked off its twelfth year on September 1. Every U.S. fourth grader, including homeschoolers, can get a free annual pass to more than 2,000 federal sites, including national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and marine sanctuaries. The pass admits the fourth grader, all kids under 16, and up to three adults, or everyone in one car at sites that charge per vehicle. This year's pass is good through August 31, 2027.

The decision to center the program on 4th graders is based on research showing kids ages 9 to 11 are at a developmental stage where they start understanding how the world works in more concrete ways and are especially receptive to engaging with nature.

Families claimed 167,970 passes in the 2023-24 school year, a 17% increase over the year before, according to National Parks Traveler. Despite its popularity, the program is currently scheduled to end in 2031. A bill introduced in Congress in 2025 would make it permanent and extend it to fifth graders, but it stalled in committee.

To get a pass, your fourth grader completes a short online activity at everykidoutdoors.gov, then prints a voucher you can use right away or exchange for a durable pass at participating sites.

Time outside builds something in kids that's hard to teach any other way. They learn to solve problems, work together, take reasonable risks, and pay attention to the world around them. Programs like these make sure more kids get that experience, planting the seeds of outdoor enthusiasm and environmental stewardship in every child who participates.