Sec. 2. Findings

325 words·~1 min read·/bill/113/s/1306/is/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds that: Children and young adults are increasingly disconnected from the natural world around them, spending less time outside playing, exploring, and learning. Play and learning in nature is important to the intellectual, social, and physical development of youth. Environmental education, as part of the formal prekindergarten through grade 12 school curriculum, provides opportunities for youth to get outside and learn about the natural world, has positive impacts on student achievement in all subjects and especially in science, reading, mathematics, and social studies, and improves critical thinking skills, enthusiasm for learning, stewardship, and healthy lifestyles.

By many indicators, the United States is falling behind other nations in preparing students with the educational tools necessary to compete for the growing opportunities in the sciences, including environmental, natural resource, and energy-related careers. Reports by boards of the National Science Foundation, the National Environmental Education Advisory Council, and the National Council for Science and the Environment, among others, have called for a systemic approach to environmental education in the formal education system to improve the environmental literacy of youth and better prepare students for college and the 21st century workforce.

Forty-eight States have developed, or are in the process of developing, environmental literacy plans to effectively integrate environmental education into the prekindergarten through grade 12 curriculum and ensure that students graduate from high school environmentally literate. At the same time, most states are aligning curricula with the Common Core State Standards. Support from the Department of Education is needed to help State and local educational agencies, and the partners of such agencies, implement environmental literacy plans and advance State curriculum frameworks for environmental and natural resource education that meets new State academic content and student achievement standards and aligns with the Next Generation Science Framework.

Federal science and natural resource agencies have important resources, including Federal lands and laboratories, content experts, data, and programs that can inform and support State and local environmental literacy policies and programming.