Minnesota's New Law Funds Outdoor Education For Students

UNDATED (WJON News) -- A bill passed during this year's State Legislative session, and signed into law by Governor Tim Walz, creates funding for students to attend an outdoor school.

The Minnesota Outdoor School for All law allocates $848,000 for grant money for the next two years.

Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center is in Sandstone. Executive Director Bryan Wood says the new grant program will help students who want to get an overnight outdoor experience at one of the state's five environmental learning centers.

And those places are nature centers with overnight accommodations, so that when students and schools come, they will be immersed for multiple days in nature. They are having meals, lodging, and getting impactfu,l life-changing experiences.

Osprey Wilds, Wolf Ridge in Finland, Eagle Bluff in Lanesboro, Long Lake Conservation Center in Palisade, and Deep Portage in Hackensack will share the state funds, which will be administered by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Amongst these five centers, we serve about 30 percent of all K-12 students, so that's about 70 percent of Minnesota students that aren't getting this type of experience, and that's tens of thousands of students.

Wood says a typical stay for students is a two-night, three-day visit. He says it will take the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources some time to set up the grant program, but he's hoping they can launch it by the fall of 2026. Wood says we're reaching a crisis.

Kids nowadays spend about seven minutes of unstructured time outside per day, and that's the lowest amount of time ever in human history. Kids are, by and large, not connected to the world around them.

Minnesota joins Oregon, Washington, and Maine in launching a statewide Outdoor School for All model.

Minnesota schools serving students in grades four through 12 are encouraged to contact one of the five accredited outdoor schools to learn more.

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Source: Minnesota Invests In Outdoor Education For K-12 Students

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