› Gear and supplies: If families cannot afford materials or gear, is there a discreet way for families to receive what they need?
› Services: If children require special education services, does your program know how to obtain them for every child?
› Social stigma and fear: People of color have historically been targeted as criminals when recreating outdoors( Finney 2014; Roberts 2015; Powers et al. 2024). Does your program advocate overcoming these stereotypes and forming trusting relationships in the community?
Which of these considerations are you currently facing?
Honoring Children and Families
High-quality early childhood programs promote positive relationships and“ encourage each child’ s sense of individual worth”( NAEYC 2019b). This grounding principle centers our belief in honoring children and families by building respectful relationships that embrace the whole child.
Adding to this, nature-based early childhood programs emphasize child-directed, emergent learning and a range of approaches that helps children find purpose in their daily experiences. This distinct child-nature focus is embedded in nature-based pedagogy. It hinges on teachers inviting children to make connections with each other and the natural world while being supported in an enriching learning environment.
A Commitment to Every Child
Early care and education is vital for every child, so it is crucial to examine any potential barriers that families face when it comes to accessing nature-based programs. One starting point may be to learn about the demographics in your community, then consider who attends your program. Does the learning community reflect the makeup of your local community? Why or why not? A program assessment can help you evaluate policies and other factors that may unintentionally prevent families with significant financial challenges or people of color from participating.
If you are opening a new nature-based program, consider the location( s) of similar programs and who they already serve. Do children from low socioeconomic status currently have access to these programs? Do children from underserved communities have equitable access to nature-based programs? If not, how can your program ensure that everyone is welcome and included in an equitable way?
Connecting with other nonprofit organizations and outside consultants can help you to address any barriers to equitable learning. They can also provide an objective perspective as an onlooker learning about your program. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a program director to objectively evaluate inequitable structures and practices that are already baked into a program— no matter how unintentional the barriers may be.
A surprising point here is that licensed child care programs in each state are tasked with providing access and support to the most vulnerable children, especially those who live in low-resourced communities and Title 1 areas. Ironically, fully immersive outdoor preschools are only legally licensed in Washington state. Maryland is currently engaged in a four-year outdoor preschool licensing pilot program, which began in 2023, while Oregon and Colorado have since enacted laws to license immersive outdoor preschools. This means that the current system of licensing in 47 of 50 US states still perpetuates systemic, inequitable access to immersive outdoor learning programs. Families who rely on state vouchers, scholarships, or subsidies for child care can only use them in licensed programs. The inability to be licensed has an unfortunate domino effect.
Consider that unlicensed outdoor preschools must operate for shorter hours to legally comply with state restrictions regarding what constitutes child care( regulations vary greatly from state to state). Tuition-based outdoor preschool programs with short, half-day hours are simply not an option for working families in need of full-time child care. As a result of this socioeconomic barrier, advocacy groups are forming across the United States to lobby for outdoor preschool licensing, thereby compelling state departments of education to develop outdoor preschool licensing standards through legislative action.
There are many emerging resources and research that examine issues of equitable access to nature-based education and related issues of environmental justice. Carolyn Finney’ s book Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans
Winter 2025 Young Children 31