Thousands of fourth graders in Santa Cruz County have received free, all-access annual passes to more than 2,000 sites including national parks and other federally managed land thanks to a partnership between the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) California Central Coast Field Office.
For the second year, students were provided the passes as part of the Every Kid Outdoors program, which allows children and their families access to the country’s natural areas.
Santa Cruz COE Superintendent Faris Sabbah explained that County Supervisor Justin Cummings connected his office with the BLM as both entities are dedicated to environmental sustainability.
“[BLM] reached out to us and let us know about the program and we thought it was a really exciting opportunity to help give access to kids to the outdoors,” Sabbah said. “We have a lot of initiatives about connecting with nature through our environmental sustainability program that we head up, as well as wanting to promote being active and having a healthy lifestyle. And so, when they reached out to us, we wanted to figure out how we could get [passes] into the hands of fourth graders in our county. We offered to be the conduit to provide the passes and then create a promotional campaign to get kids and families excited about visiting these federal parks.”
A few of the areas nearest to the COE include Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, Pinnacles National Park, Fort Ord National Monument and Rancho Corral de Tierra (part of the Golden Gate national parks).
To distribute the passes, the COE first informed the local Superintendents Council as well as charter school leaders. They created a communications toolkit and worked with districts to ensure that schools and teachers had what they needed to get passes to students.
Since then, “we’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from folks and from the superintendents and from teachers thanking us,” Sabbah said.
According to Sabbah, access to nature spaces can be an equity issue, and the passes allow all young people the opportunity to visit such locations. “There’s nothing more equitable than everyone,” Sabbah noted. “We want to make sure that that all families have access and are able to participate in these kinds of opportunities and not just those who can afford it.”
In the Every Kid Outdoors report for 2022–23, 73 percent of program participants suggested that without the free access, they wouldn’t have visited a national park.
The passes typically admit all individuals under age 16 for free as well as up to three adults, according to the Every Kid Outdoors website.
The need for nature
Being familiar with parks systems and spending time outdoors is critical for many reasons.
“Research shows that if by the age of 10 children are spending time in these public spaces, that they’re much more likely to visit parks and make that a part of their lives,” Sabbah said. “The earlier we can encourage students to really engage and participate and appreciate nature, the more likely they are to keep that connection for the rest of their lives and more likely to value environmental sustainability, which I think is really important.”
Time with family, disconnecting from devices and being active are among the benefits that can help improve mental and physical health.
“Going out and being in nature is one of the most positive, impactful things that we see in helping students who we see with a higher incidence, for example, of anxiety and depression,” Sabbah said. “We see this as one of the pieces that can help students to maybe express that, overcome that, and feel better and more hopeful about their lives and their future.”
The COE’s board of education has been supportive of the initiative as well as efforts to support students’ mental and physical health, Sabbah added. “We see this as one of those programs that is really giving opportunities that will result in more wellness for our students,” he said.
Sabbah indicated that the COE is interested in continuing to offer the passes each year and said that other local educational agencies could likely implement the program as well, especially through partnerships like theirs with BLM.
Other LEAs may already be involved in offering the California State Park Adventure Pass, which similarly provides free entry to fourth graders and their families to state parks.
