Park and recreation advocates and state affiliates have expressed massive support to members of Congress for including parks and recreation in the provisions of the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008. The NCLI Act, as originally conceived, was intended to be part of the anticipated reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), but for many reasons, that act is not likely to be reauthorized by the 110th Congress.

Therefore, the bill sponsors shifted gears and moved to amend the National Environmental Education Act by adding a new section titled "National Capacity Environmental Education Grant" (NCEEG) program, which includes the provisions of NCLI. The funding structure for NEEA differs from that of NCLB.

This new version of NCLI was quickly taken up by the full Education and Labor Committee and passed by a bipartisan vote of 37-8 on June 18. The bill awaits floor time in the full House, where it is expected to pass.

NRPA has worked to see local and state parks as well as state natural resource agencies included in the final text of the bill. While this was not possible due to the highly compressed and fluid negotiations leading up to the E&L Committee approval of this bill, the committee was very favorable to the idea of encouraging partnerships by school systems, nonprofits, and public park and recreation agencies, and therefore included the following language in the committee report, an influential document that accompanies a bill and expresses the will of Congress to the federal agencies charged with carrying out the language: "The Committee recognizes the contributions made by local and regional parks to the environmental education of children and communities, and also encourages NCEEG program grantees to partner with them to establish new programs or expand existing programs."

NRPA, along with support from the 500-member National Coalition for the No Child Left Inside Act, will work with both the House and Senate sponsors of this legislation to see that parks, recreation, and natural resource agencies are included in the bill appropriately. For details, contact Stacey Pine at spine@nrpa.org.