The Nevada Outdoor Education Advisory Working Group (AWG) has released its 2024 Outdoor Education Advisory Working Group Report to the Nevada State Legislature, recommending several programs and strategies to integrate outdoor recreation into PreK-12 public education.

Assembly Bill 164, passed during the 2023 Legislative Session, created the Outdoor Education Advisory Working Group (AWG). This group includes representation from public schools, students, state agencies, bipartisan and bicameral state legislators, healthcare, early childhood education, and nature-based education providers. 

The AWG’s primary responsibility is to study ways to integrate outdoor recreation into the public education curriculum and report their findings to the Nevada State Legislature. Over the past year, with coordination support from the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation (NDOR), the AWG came together to explore strategies to do just that! 

Beginning in November 2023, the AWG convened to learn from experts, review case studies, and explore research highlighting the importance of time outdoors for children and the role that nature can play in promoting academic achievement and mental, physical, and social well-being for students and their school communities. 

This research led to a range of proposed strategies for integrating outdoor education, organized into four key focus areas:

• Capacity Building 
• Content Integration 
• Outdoor Learning Infrastructure 
• Policy 

The AWG worked for several months in subcommittees dedicated to these focus areas to develop public feedback questions, integrate feedback results, and provide final recommendations to the full group. These strategies align with the AWG vision: To collaborate with schools, community leaders, and stakeholders to grow sustainable PreK-12 outdoor learning policies, programs, access, and spaces for the benefit of all Nevada students’ wellness.

Through a bilingual online survey and five stakeholder focus groups, the AWG engaged with over 750 Nevadans to understand their priorities for integrating the outdoors into schools. 

These feedback opportunities were made possible thanks to the Nature Everywhere initiative, which selected AWG’s work from nationwide proposals as the first-ever state-focused project. As a Nature Everywhere Accelerator Community, the AWG received seed funding from our partners at the Children & Nature Network, National League of Cities, and KABOOM! This support also includes two years of technical assistance for planning and implementation of outdoor education initiatives, with potential for future catalytic grants to advance Nevada’s efforts in implementing AWG recommendations. 

The AWG hopes that this report can serve as a reference for Nevada’s 2025 Legislative Session and beyond to build sustainable systems for outdoor education in public schools. This report outlines actionable steps for the State of Nevada to establish outdoor education as a reliable tool for the benefit of Nevada students, educators, schools, and communities.

All AWG meetings are open to the public and posted agendas, supporting materials, and meeting minutes will be available on this webpage.