About the DC Environmental Literacy Plan

In June 2010, the Council of the District of Columbia unanimously passed the Healthy Schools Act of 2010, which prioritizes the health and wellness of students throughout the District. The Healthy Schools Act calls for an environmental literacy plan for the District – a road map that will lay the foundation for District-wide implementation and integration of environmental education into the K-12 curriculum.

Environmental literacy is the development of knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to make informed decisions concerning the relationships among natural and urban systems.

An environmentally literate person:

Discusses and describes ecological and environmental systems and human impacts on these systems;
Engages in hands-on, outdoor learning experiences that involve discovery, inquiry and problem solving;
Formulates questions and analyzes information pertaining to his or her surrounding environment; and
Understands how to take actions that respect, restore, protect and sustain the health and well-being of human communities and environmental systems.

An environmental literacy plan (ELP) creates the framework for standards, achievement, professional development, assessment and leadership for individuals and organizations to thrive and achieve innovation in education. On July 2, 2012, the Executive Office of the Mayor transmitted the final draft of the DC ELP to DC Council. Two years after the ELP was drafted, DC Council passed the Sustainable DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2014, which included the “Environmental Literacy Plan Adoption” Act, which creates a new program and staff within the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to further develop and implement the ELP first developed under the Healthy Schools Act.

In August 2024, OSSE released the third update to the original ELP. The plan describes:

Relevant teaching and learning standards adopted by the State Board of Education;
Professional development opportunities for teachers;
Suitable metrics to measure environmental literacy;
Suitable methods to increase environmental literacy;
Governmental and nongovernmental entities that can assist schools; and
A proposed implementation method for the plan.

Broader efforts, such as the District’s Comprehensive Plan and Sustainable DC, include education goals that align with the ELP. The plan is the local component for regional and national environmental literacy efforts, such as the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and the US Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program. Combined, these road maps will empower future generations to make effective environmental decisions and become caretakers of our natural resources.

The Environmental Literacy Advisory Committee updates the plan every three years and meets regularly to monitor implementation. Committee members include representatives from the following District agencies:

The 2024 Implementation Progress Table compiled as part of the Healthy Schools Act reporting requirements. Full implementation reports can be found on the Healthy Schools Act reports webpage.

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