The purpose of this data focus area is to identify to what extent each school district in California has made progress towards environmental and climate action based on common indicators that demonstrate some level of investment or prioritization of environmental and climate action (green schools efforts) within a school or district's campus, curriculum, community and culture.
The Indicators for Environmental and Climate Action in TK-12 Schools can be utilized at both the state and local level:
State: The data supports state entities (both governmental and nongovernmental) to consider where action is taking place across the state, and can inform where to direct support resources to catalyze and accelerate efforts.
Local: The data can support district and site-level leaders to consider how they compare to other districts in their county or region, or other districts of the same size across the state.
Example indicators: Green Ribbon recognition, environmental and climate focused school board policies, facilities master plans and/or passed bond measures, investments in district-wide environmental and climate initiatives, and compensated staff to lead environmental and climate action. These indicators can serve as evidence of readiness or progress towards institutionalizing a district-wide commitment to environmental and climate action.
Video Overview of District Data Sets ↓
This page includes the indicator tracking system and analysis by indicator category for all of California's public school districts (nearly 1,000 district). This data focus area has been created to better understand the indicators of investment that all of California's public school districts have made in environmental and climate action across their campuses, curriculum, and overall community and culture.
This page includes a regional or county-level summary of the indicators of Environmental and Climate action taken by California's public school districts. This page has been created to give educational leaders at the regional or county-levels a snapshot of the trends across their service area in terms of Scale, Equity, and Environmental/Climate Action as well as the ability to compare their region against the state.
Data Reports and Additional Datasets
Full Analysis of Specific Indicators
Data Report (April 2025): Opportunities and Barriers for Accelerating Environmental and Climate Action in California's TK-12 Public Schools
This companion report provide educational leaders with interactive tools to visualize data on scale, equity, context, and progress in environmental and climate action across campus, curriculum, community, and culture. It supports data-informed decisions to advance climate action in California’s TK–12 schools.
California Green Ribbon Analysis
The Green Ribbon Schools program is the only federally and state-recognized program that provides criteria for what qualifies as a “green” school - or a school that has committed to taking environmental and climate action. Recognition in this program means that a school or district has completed a baseline assessment of current environmental literacy and sustainability efforts and has made progress towards using a whole systems approach (campus, curriculum, and community and culture) for environmental and climate action. This data initiative includes an in-depth analysis of California Green Ribbon since 2014.
Schoolyard Greening Data and Analysis
Green schoolyards are school grounds that include nature filled elements such as outdoor classrooms, native and/or edible gardens, stormwater capture, nature play areas, trails, trees and micro forests, water features, and more. These rich outdoor environments strengthen local ecological systems and have many academic and health and well-being benefits for students and their educators. This data analysis shows the high level data on the current status of different aspects of schoolyard greening - in particular gardens and schoolyard forests - across California’s TK–12 school districts.
