| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
1 | ||
2 | SCHOOLYARD INVENTORY TOOL | |
3 | Municipality or School District Name: [NAME] | |
4 | ||
5 | A growing body of research suggests that when communities green their schoolyards, they experience a variety of benefits. Time spent learning and playing in nature can help children reach their full academic and social-emotional potential and access to safe, natural areas can enhance children’s health, from improving cardiovascular vitality and weight management to reducing stress and ADHD symptoms. In addition, regular access to high quality green space inspires strong connections to the natural world. The benefits of green schoolyards are even greater for children where access to green space is sparse, a challenge often faced by low income communities and communities of color. | |
6 | How to Use This Tool The Schoolyard Inventory can assist school districts, cities, neighborhoods, and their partners in understanding what schoolyard amenities exist as they roll out a districtwide, open-access green schoolyard program. The features included in this tool can be used hand in hand with the Green Schoolyard Site Selection Tool, but is NOT designed to drive decisions about which school grounds should be prioritized on its own. The tool is customizable and districts should remove features that are not locally relevant, and add others that are. Calibration and training is critical if the district/city wishes to compare school results across the district. Submissions from many different respondents, such as the principal of each school, can lead to unreliable information. Depending on district size, a districtwide schoolyard inventory can be a major undertaking, and cities have approached it in multiple ways. In some cases, the Facilities Department already has a version of this inventory, or tracks many of the features. Other districts have hired and trained interns or youth crews to use a rubric, GIS, and/or other complementary technology to complete the inventory. In yet others, districts engaged parent volunteers to take responsibility for the inventory. These types of approaches can be doubly beneficial, by collecting necessary data and also raising awareness and a focus on equity through community engagement. | |