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Credit: Crystal Nichols (Cropped from original)
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Outdoor School funding updates for 2025-2027

Funding reductions

The final Oregon Legislative budget has been passed and includes the 20% reduction to statewide outdoor school funding. OSU Extension Outdoor School Program has reduced staff centrally, restructured the organization, and is assessing all of our existing planned events, professional development offerings, and projects to help make up for the reduction.

The OSU Extension Outdoor School team designed and delivered a community engagement project to engage in dialogue with the network of districts, schools, providers, and sites to explore what this means for 2025-26 outdoor school programs. We captured input through focus groups and surveys, analyzed the data we collected, and brought it to the Advisory Committee on August 7 to finalize the funding reduction decision outlined below and to develop a plan for the 2025-2026 school year based on available funding.

Additional funding reduction strategy details and ongoing updates for schools, districts, providers, and sites can be found in the “Need to Knows” document. For more information on the statewide outdoor school funding structure, budget history, summary, and grant programs, review the Outdoor School Program Funding and Budget Fact Sheet.

Additional potential Outdoor School Program funding reduction

The Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) has proposed an additional $1.7M reduction to the Outdoor School Program budget. We expect this reduction would jeopardize the viability of many district programs and force districts that continue to participate to reduce program length. This webpage will be updated with further information as it becomes available.

Learn more about funding process and statewide impacts

Submit requests for supplemental funding for student inclusion, funding corrections, and exceptions

All districts have received school-specific total maximum funding amounts for 2025-2026. We are now accepting requests via two forms for supplemental funding for student inclusion and for funding corrections and exceptions. Review the request details and submit below.

Student inclusion requests

What is the purpose of the supplemental funding for student inclusion form?

Additional funding may be requested to support individual students or groups of students with exceptional needs. Review the list of eligible expenses below. (Funds are limited, and we may not be able to approve every request, even if the request is for eligible expenses.)

The purpose of this supplemental funding is not to bridge the gap for the reduced percentage of funding allocated for 2025-26. This funding is solely for the purpose of ensuring that students with the highest needs are fully included in the outdoor school experience. We understand that nearly every school has legitimate and important reasons why they need more outdoor school funding for 2025-2026. In an ideal scenario, we would be able to provide that funding to every school. Unfortunately, we simply don’t have the funds in our budget to support all of those needs, given the passage of a reduced outdoor school budget by the Oregon Legislature. We hope to work with you to document the impacts of these cuts and share that information with the Legislature.

How do I complete a request?

Using the form linked below, districts should make requests on behalf of schools. For requests involving a small number of schools (one to four schools), please submit one application per school. If you are coordinating requests for five or more schools at a time, it will likely be easiest to ask schools to enter their information into a single Request Template (Google Sheet - requires a Google account; Excel Sheet) and then submit the completed template on their behalf in a single submission of this form. We have opted to have districts, rather than schools, complete this form because we will issue an updated work order (requiring superintendent signature) to the district if a supplemental funding request is approved for one or more schools. (The district work order contains a separate funding allocation for each school.)

Districts can submit multiple request forms over the course of the year. We encourage districts to submit batches of requests whenever possible to reduce the number of times work orders need to be reissued.

Please reach out to your Outdoor School Regional Program Manager with questions.

Submit a request

What are the eligible expenses?

Allowable expenses include:

  • Costs associated with renting, borrowing, maintaining, or training in the use of accessibility equipment needed by student(s) attending outdoor school.
    • Examples of allowable expenses include: equipment rental fees, delivery/pickup costs, accessories to fit equipment to students’ needs, etc.
    • Our regular policies related to Supplies and Materials and Other Purchased Services apply.
  • Costs for specialized transportation that accommodates the needs of an individual student or group of students, such as a bus with a particular type of lift or wheelchair securement system.
    • If the district switches to a more expensive mode of transportation to accommodate the needs of an individual student or group of students, the district can request supplemental funds for the difference between the cost to the district of the specialized transportation and what would have been spent. (The “cost to the district” refers to the portion of transportation funding that is not eligible for State School Fund Transportation Grants funding.)
    • If a student needs a separate mode of transportation or a different schedule (e.g., the IEP team determines it would be in the student’s best interest to attend for only a part of each day), the district can request supplemental funding for the entire portion of the cost not covered by the State School Fund Transportation Grant.
    • Our regular policies related to Reimbursable Transportation Costs apply.
  • Extra time or stipends for district, ESD, or charter school employees and/or costs for contractors who are attending outdoor school for the specific purpose of supporting an individual student or a small group of students. By “specific purpose”, we mean that the employee’s/contractor’s primary reason for attending is to support the student(s), and the employee/contractor would not attend if the individual student or small group of students was not attending. Adults attending outdoor school for these specific purposes are exempt from the 1:8 adult:student ratio that OSU will typically pay.
    • Examples could include: one-on-one aides, medical support personnel, language access support, etc.
    • Our regular policies related to Salaries and Associated Payroll Costs and Other Purchased Services apply (e.g., we do not reimburse a district or charter school employee’s usual working hours).
  • Costs for substitutes hired by the district to attend outdoor school for the specific purpose of supporting an individual student or small group of students, or to cover the school-based duties of an employee who is attending outdoor school for the specific purpose of supporting an individual student or a small group of students.
  • Costs charged by the outdoor school provider above and beyond their standard student charge to support full inclusion of an individual student or a small group of students. For example, if the provider agrees to rent equipment, contract with a nurse, or have an additional staff person on site during the program to support the student(s), the district can request supplemental funding to cover these extra expenses.
  • Costs charged by the provider or site for adults in excess of the 1:8 adult:student ratio that OSU will typically pay, if the adults are attending outdoor school for the specific purpose of supporting an individual student or small group of students.
  • Costs associated with providing alternate lodging for individual students or for contractors attending outdoor school for the specific purpose of supporting an individual student or small group of students.

Prohibited expenses include, but are not limited to:

  • Salaries and Associated Payroll Costs for district, ESD, or charter school employees providing general support for student needs at outdoor school or in excess of one (1) adult per eight (8) students, UNLESS the adult attendance is related to the needs of specific students as outlined above.
  • Costs for daily transportation between the outdoor school site and the school that are based on student or family preference.

When are the deadlines for requests?

  • For schools attending outdoor school before December 31, 2025, please submit the request forms as soon as possible. The OSU Extension Outdoor School Program will review these forms as they are received.
  • For schools attending outdoor school between January 1 and June 30, 2026, please submit request forms by January 30, 2026. The OSU Extension Outdoor School Program will review these forms in a batch immediately following the deadline.

Funding corrections and exception requests

What is the purpose of the corrections and exception form?

We have created a single form where school districts can submit three different types of requests:

  • School-level funding: A request to increase funding for a specific school, based on changes in student enrollment or attendance, or suspected calculation discrepancies.
  • Alternate program structure: A request for permission to run a shorter program or a program with another alternate structure that does not align with the typically allowable program formats.
  • Interchange funds between schools: A request for permission to move allocated/approved funding between schools within a district.

How do I complete a request?

Using the form below, districts should make requests on behalf of schools. If you are coordinating requests for five or more schools at a time, it will likely be easiest to ask schools to enter their information into a single Request Template (available within the form below) and then submit the completed template on their behalf in a single submission of this form. We have opted to have districts, rather than schools, complete this form because we will issue an updated work order (requiring superintendent signature) to the district if requests are approved for one or more schools. (The district work order contains a separate funding allocation for each school.)

This form includes the choice between three (3) types of requests. If you are making more than one type of request, please complete a separate form for each type.

Districts can submit multiple request forms over the course of the year. We encourage districts to submit batches of requests whenever possible to reduce the number of times work orders need to be reissued.

Please reach out to your Outdoor School Regional Program Manager with questions.

Submit your request

When are the deadlines for requests?

You are encouraged to submit the form as early as is practicable for you. The priority deadline for requests is October 22.

Fall State of Outdoor School webinar September 10

Review the slide deck

Share your outdoor school stories

OSU Extension Outdoor School and our partner, Friends of Outdoor School, are dedicated to bringing outdoor education to Oregon’s students, and your stories showcase the powerful impact outdoor school has. We invite you to share your story through writing, video, or another format, so together we can capture the transformative stories of outdoor school, demonstrate the impacts of the funding reduction, and build support for restoring funding.

Share your story
Credit: Crystal Nichols (Cropped from original)

Funding reduction resources

Cost-saving strategies and guidance

Explore cost-saving strategies for outdoor school programs, gathered from focus groups, surveys, and conversations with schools and partners.

Outdoor School

Maximum funding allocation formula

The maximum allocated funding amounts for 2025-2026 were calculated using a formula in which every school began with a base funding level of 78% of the amount they spent in their most recent year of attendance.

Outdoor School

Statewide school-specific maximum funding allocation list

Learn more about the school-specific maximum funding allocations for all schools in the state.

Outdoor School

Funding reduction need to knows

Resource for schools, districts, providers, and sites to access detailed information and ongoing updates on the impacts of the reduced statewide outdoor school budget.

Outdoor School

Community engagement project & funding decision-making process

We delivered a community engagement project that gathered and analyzed input from across the outdoor school network to develop a strategy for implementing outdoor school statewide within a reduced budget during the 2025-2026 year.

Outdoor School

Outdoor School community update webinar July 8

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