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May National ONB Policy Huddle Recap

State map of the United States. States are colored in teal, purple, or gray to reflect participation in advocacy and networks. An orange line outlines state regional networks

State engagment with ONB policy and network building efforts

Date

This month's National Outdoor and Nature-Based (ONB) Policy Huddle brought together advocates and policy leaders from around the country together to share updates on state-level progress. Leaders discussed a range of issues influencing movement building, policy advancement, and successful implementation. Highlights included updates from Network-led advocacy efforts in Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Texas.

Upcoming Events

State Updates

Maine

  • ONB Rules Progress- MaineECO has been working closely with the Office of Early Childhood to inform the creation of new licensing rules. They've been asked to act as the intermediary between field providers and the state agency—gathering and consolidating practitioner feedback and relaying it back to regulators and relaying follow up questions requiring additional community engagement. They're appreciative of the state's commitment, while continuing to grapple with a resource-intensive process that does not include funding for outreach and engagement. MaineECO's focus remains on advancing access for all children, and they're committed to working with the state and keeping field voices central!

Michigan

  • ONB Rules Progress: Licensing rules passed last summer are now being refined through an integrated monthly pilot work group with providers and the state that is being supported by MichiganECO. Six licensing consultants are attending a week-long nature-based education training next month. Nature preschool scholarships remain available for low-income staff! 

Oregon

  • Networks as Liaisons: OLEAO is hosting monthly open-air conversations for practitioners and advocates, with an upcoming session featuring the Department of Early Learning on licensing. They are embracing their role as the middleman and excited that momentum is growing! 

  • Partnerships:The network is partnering with the Oregon Environmental Education Association for this year’s upcoming NAAEE Conference in Portland in October. 

  • NEED: OLEAO/Dez are looking to connect with other state leaders who have ideas or experience to share about how to get the state involved from all corners/across agencies. 

Texas

  • Benefit-Risk Resource: The Texas Education Agency is developing a risk-benefit analysis resource for all public schools (planned for January 2027) following their participation in outdoor learning leadership summits, and there is real growing momentum and a commitment to building an accessible hub. 

  • Bridging Investment in Nature through Health: Child health has been a powerful bridge for engaging state agencies, nonprofits, and universities with nature-based learning. There's been a lot of local university work connecting with nurses and pediatricians around child development. In a state as polarized in both directions as Texas, child health is something everybody can speak to with confidence and rally around.

  • Service Centers: Texas has education service centers that serve all child care centers, public schools, private schools, and charters. Advocates realized that while these centers recognized nature-based learning as valuable for early childhood, they didn’t know how to do that training and developed a partnership with ONB Movement Leader and Vice President of Education at the Will Smith Zoo School, Amanda McMickle to support embedding nature into their trainings. This became the basis for a train-the-trainer model now being shared more widely across the state!

  • Partnerships: The Will Smith Zoo School has established a partnership with a school district where the program oversees the FTE (the teacher) and the district provides the classroom, outdoor spaces, and meals, so kids are able to attend at no cost. This allows the program to provide high-quality nature-based learning, rather than simply handing over lesson plans. They are finding that partnerships are providing a powerful way to move forward despite limited funding, demonstrate impact, and inspire additional grants or dedicated funding for what's already working.

  • Offering: In Texas, experience has been that nonprofits are often searching for opportunities to support low-income or under-resourced communities. Finding organizations whose mission aligns and  pitching a proposal that connects their mission to supporting teachers in nature-based learning has been a very successful strategy. Interested advocates can contact Amanda McMickle to learn more!

Wisconsin

  • Building Agency Relationships: Leaders in Wisconsin recently received funding to send 5 licensors to a Natural Learning Initiative online outdoor learning environments course. The course is just wrapping up, and licensors are excited about outdoor learning and bringing back great information and enthusiasm to providers in their regions. The network is thinking about how to support them in bringing what they've learned to other licensors across the state. (Natural Start has Professional Practices Guidebooks that can be shared with state agencies to support engagement with ONB Policy- reach out for details.)

  • Licensing Progress- Wisconsin DHS recently brought on a new intern to work on writing commentary to accompany the licensing policy changes. Feeling positive about the direction things are headed! 

National Updates

  • NAAEE and Youth Outdoor Policy Partnership (YOPP) held a webinar featuring Rep. Grossell from Kentucky, who sponsored this year's Kentucky outdoor nature-based child care licensing bill, with lessons learned from their efforts, as well as from successful policy efforts in Georgia and Colorado. Watch the recording.

  • Exciting plans for NatStart26, which will return to a site-based conference this year! The Will Smith Zoo School in San Antonio has lots of indoor and outdoor spaces for sessions, and plenty of neat spaces if you want to meet with regional groups or talk between sessions. 

  • ONB Recommendations for Licensing: The updated Recommendations will be rolled out at this year's conference. 

  • New ONB Weather Guide is now available! 

  • Disability and Belonging: Earlier this year, Shawn Rundell and Kit Harrington convened a national conversation about disability justice in outdoor early learning. This led to a new interdisciplinary working group, the Disability and Belonging Collective, designed for anyone interested in or doing the work, including those who identify as disabled, are the parent or caregiver of a child with a disability, or come from the healthcare, education, or policy world.  Brooke Larm has been working with Shawn on the creation of a resource library and new policy decision tree toward belonging- providing the technical guidance and further practical considerations to accompany Natural Start's policy recommendations in this area.  

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