IDENTIFY THE NUMBER OF SCHOOLS, THEIR LOCATIONS, AND NEEDS

The first step in planning is to gather key information from schools across the school district.

• Identify which schools in your district would like to have space offsite for outdoor learning.

• Ask participating schools to quantify the number of outdoor classrooms (and number of students per class) that they would like to move offsite. 

• Ask participating schools to list the programs that they would like to take offsite along with the classes. (For example, meal service, physical education, recess, art)

• Mark the locations of these schools in Google Maps’ My Maps program or on another map of your city. Include the notes about the number of outdoor classroom spaces and program facilities they will each need, and embed this information with each school’s marked location on the map.

SET THE TRAVEL RADIUS

Next, determine how far all students will be able to travel from their normal school site to another location in the community. The logistics of using an offsite location will be simplest if the locations you select are within a short distance of the school. The distance may vary with students’ ages, their means of transportation, and the availability of public spaces in the neighborhood. For example, if most students walk or bike to school, the school may decide to limit its search to places that are within a 15-minute walk of the campus, or perhaps a half-mile or a mile. If most students take the school bus to campus, then the search radius could potentially be larger if the bus can deliver the students to the alternate location and everyone who does not take the bus can also get there easily.

Outdoor spaces like this one in Madison, Wisconsin are very useful for outdoor learning during the pandemic.

Some schools might find that bikes are a helpful transportation option during the pandemic.

This simple map of schools (shown in yellow) and Parks (shown in green) in the Kansas City, Kansas Area was created using Google’s free “My Maps” program.

The map above is an example of land use analysis accomplished using a GIS system. This particular map of Austin, Texas shows schools and parks, and pinpoints the locations where there is joint use of school and park land. Image by Melody Alcazar.

This map, created by 450 Architects, shows the public school locations and open spaces in San Francisco, California. It was created to assist the school district and the city’s Parks department in evaluating outdoor learning options.

RESEARCH POTENTIAL OUTDOOR SPACES

Consider which types of outdoor venues are closest to the schools that need them and are best suited to the number and types of classes and programs your school district would like to move offsite. Include parks, public lands, and open spaces in front of public buildings and other institutions in your community. For example, the front lawn of a local YMCA, nature center, or museum might be a good fit for a school in their neighborhood. Be sure to also consider whether any of the streets around each school’s campus might be suitable for outdoor learning. For example, some streets might have wide sidewalks or tree-lined parkways that could be used for outdoor learning. Others might be able to be closed to traffic during school hours and used with portable seating and tables. There may also be underutilized parking lots near the school that could provide additional open-space options. 

After determining which types of spaces are best for your school district and community context, map the options you are considering for each school. Below are three different suggestions about how to make this type of map, arranged from simpler to more complex mapping tools. Keep in mind that outdoor space can mean a number of things — not just green space.

Simplest method. Continue to utilize the Google Map you started (above). Create a separate map layer to organize the information for each school. Measure and mark the desired travel radius around each school. Add all of the potential community locations that could be considered for outdoor learning that fall within each travel radius. Use colored flags in the My Maps program to identify each type of option on your map and keep your color key consistent across the whole map. For example, use green flags to indicate parks, yellow flags for street and parking lot options, and blue flags for open spaces that are part of community institutions. Use the “share” function in My Maps to share the resulting map within the school district and with each school community as you move to the next stage of planning.

Moderate difficulty. Leverage the connections your school district may have to colleagues at local city agencies or parks departments who might have access to map-based data for your city. Consider working with a city planning team to understand which maps exist and discuss how they can be used to identify available open spaces. Does your city use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data? Discuss how these tools can support your school district’s process to identify potential offsite locations.

Most detailed option. Create a formal GIS map with layers for each type of open space your school district is considering. Use the map to identify the best routes from each school to each selected open space. Think about ways to make this map user friendly so it can easily be shared with the community and everyone can be aware of the options that exist. Consider overlaying variable features like park amenities, transit systems, and community entities such as libraries, universities, or museums. 

The Maryland Park Equity Mapper, above, is a very useful tool for understanding where the existing green spaces are in a city, and identifying locations that need more parks in the future. In places where parks are scarce now, schools may need to look for alternative outdoor spaces in order to move learning outdoors during the pandemic.

Use the following questions as a guide as your school district selects public spaces in the community to use for outdoor learning. We recommend that a team of stakeholders — such as principals, teachers, paraprofessionals, families, out-of-school time staff, facilities, outdoor space staff — work together to answer these questions. 

How can you ensure that families and school staff feel comfortable with the proposed offsite locations? 

• Have you considered all of the things that would make the community feel secure or insecure in this space? For example, are there law enforcement personnel present? If so, this may make students, families, and teachers feel more or less protected.

• Are there any signs or symbols posted in or near the outdoor space that might make some, or all, members of the community feel uncomfortable or unsafe?

Are all of the grounds and facilities the district is considering ADA compliant?

• School grounds and other spaces regularly used for school must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) standards for wheelchair accessibility and overall accessibility to people with a wide range of physical needs. See the ADA website for more information.

Does the school district’s liability coverage change when school programs are off campus?

• How will these new sites be covered under the school’s existing liability coverage and insurance providers? 

• For liability insurance purposes, will these outdoor learning spaces be treated as field trip sites, an extension of the school property, or something else?

• Does the method of transportation to the offsite locations change the district’s liability coverage in any way? For example, does it matter if students walk to the new locations? Or take school buses or public transit? Or if they are dropped off using private vehicles?