Board Commitments
This page gives an overview and summary of environmental and climate action board commitments in California's TK-12 Public School Districts.
Embedded Files
Overview: School boards play a critical role in shaping district priorities through the adoption of formal policies and governance actions. This page explores which California school districts have adopted environmental and climate-related Resolutions, Board Policies (BP), and Administrative Regulations (AR), providing an overview of how environmental and climate priorities are being institutionalized across the state.
Board Policies and Administrative Regulation Definitions
The table below provides detailed definitions of board policies and administrative regulations collected as a part of this data initiative.
Overview and Summary on the Overall Adoption of Board Policies
The dashboard below provides a statewide overview of environmental board commitments across California's TK–12 school districts.
The map on the left displays the geographic distribution of policy adoption. Districts highlighted in color have adopted at least one policy/resolution. The summary cards in the upper right show the total number and percentage of California school districts that have adopted at least one policy/resolution.
The bar chart in the lower right breaks down adoption by individual policy types. Policies with no documented adoption are not displayed. As a result, some policies included in our tracking system may not appear in the chart because data for those policies have not yet been collected or because no California school district has publicly available evidence of adoption. Use the toggle at the top to explore policy adoption by category. Hover over the bar for the definition of policy.
This data set identifies which districts have passed templated environmental board policies (BP) from the California School Boards Association (CSBA), any related Administrative Regulations (AR), and Board Resolutions that address environmental/climate action or literacy. The methodology that analysts used for collecting this data was to search for the board of education’s policy page on each of the district websites.
[Coming Soon] What if all school districts had an Environmental Education policy? Lessons from California.
- Carine Verschueren, Andra Yeghoian, Sarah Whiting
This paper analyzes the quality of Environmental and Climate Education policies that have been passed by California School Districts, and analyzes the extent to which these districts have implemented their environmental education policy commitments.
Sample Customized Policies and Resolutions
Other Environmental and Climate Action Resolutions
Climate Resilience and Sustainability Resolution: A Time for Action!
-Passed by Menlo Park City School District in 2024
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION GUIDELINES - COLLABORATIVE FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE SCHOOLS (CHPS)
-Passed by El Monte Union High School District in 2020
EXPANSION OF IMMERSIVE OUTDOOR LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
-Passed by Pasadena Unified School District
Climate Emergency Resolution/Declaration
Declaration of Climate Emergency
-Passed by San Mateo Union High School District in 2021
Climate Action Resolution/Declaration
Call to Climate Action
-Passed by Cold Spring School District in 2019
Calling for Climate Change Action to Protect Students and Their Families
-Passed by Berkeley Unified School District in 2019
In Support of Earth Day, Climate Action, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability
-Passed by Laguna Beach Unified School District in 2022
Earth Day Resolution
PROCLAMATION: Designating April 22, 2023 as Earth Day
-Passed by Cabrillo Unified School District in 2023
"Invest in Our Planet"
-Passed by Redondo Beach Unified School District in 2023
A Call to Action on Climate Change in Recognition of Earth Day
-Passed by Mt. Diablo Unified School District in 2021
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
Key Takeaways
The state has passed a tipping point for districts passing board commitments with over half of the districts passing most of the board policies and administrative regulations that were tracked as part of this initiative (about 60% on average for board policies and about 45% on average for administrative regulations) This indicates a growing movement amongst school boards to incentivize environmental sustainability and/or climate action.
Far fewer districts are passing resolutions that are not based on the CSBA templates. More research is needed to explore the extent to which the passing of board policies is related to implementation of environmental and climate initiatives and if those districts who have passed resolutions are also investing more broadly in sustainability across their district.
Acknowledgements
Ten Strands would like to thank the following researchers for their expertise and contributions to this project:
Researcher: Carine Verschueren, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Education
Data Analysts Interns: UC Berkeley Data Discovery Intern Teams
Spring 2024: Amy Castillo, Brian Meng, Jishan Jiang, Judy He, Maya Nalliah
Summer 2026: Caden Luu, Joseph Or, Surabhi Verma
Data Advisor: Curtis Atkisson, George Washington University eScience Institute
Page updated
Report abuse