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In addition to serving as parks, play spaces and even outdoor classrooms, renovated schoolyards have \"climate superpowers,\" Regas said. Landscaped gardens and porous surfaces help to absorb floodwaters. In New York City and Philadelphia, the Trust for Public Land's schoolyards capture a combined 36 million gallons of stormwater a year. Trees helping to cool down the space are also crucial, as one-third of students attend school in a heat island, according to the Trust for Public Land.

One of the many tasks Darleen Gearhart took on to overhaul the underperforming Sussex Avenue School in Newark, New Jersey, as its new principal nearly a decade ago was improving the school's playground.

\"It was all blacktop, there was a brick wall, a big fence, a dumpster, and that was pretty much it,\" said Gearhart, who is now the director of mathematics for Newark Public Schools. \"It was essentially like a student playing on the street.\"

\"PHOTO:
Christian Valdez/Courtesy The Trust for Public Land
PHOTO: The grand opening of the Sussex Avenue Elementary School playground in Newark, N.J., on Nov. 25, 2014.
>

Working with community members and the Trust for Public Land, they transformed the blank space into a green schoolyard, with a track, basketball court, play equipment, butterfly bush, vegetable garden and more. The space, which debuted in 2014, also features a turf field and porous play areas to help manage stormwater and prevent flooding.

\"As people see the impacts, I believe that the default option will become community schoolyards,\" Regas said. \"I think the challenge is, how can we speed that up given the urgency of addressing climate change and the urgency of really improving education for kids who are in elementary school right now?\"

Funding challenges

The biggest barrier to implementing climate initiatives is often funding, though leaders like Lin say their schools demonstrate that this work is achievable.

There is a $38 billion annual funding gap in state and local monies to regularly upgrade public school facilities, including infrastructure improvements to help schools serve as emergency shelters and community resources during disasters, according to a 2021 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

\"Schools require upgrades to effectively fulfill this important community purpose, including windows that can withstand high winds, structures designed to survive earthquakes, and rooms specifically designed as shelters from tornadoes,\" the report said.

With no money in their school budget for a green schoolyard, the Sussex Avenue School raised grants and donations in excess of $1 million, Gearhart said.

\"Something like this wouldn't ever be in a school's budget,\" she said.

The Trust for Public Land has worked with school districts to support ballot measures that include funding for climate resiliency, including a $735 million school bond passed last year that would help fund, in part, green schoolyards in the Oakland Unified School District.

\"That's a really interesting strategy to try to address the need for growing the capital resources that can come to support schoolyards,\" Danielle Denk, who leads the Trust for Public Land's nationwide schoolyard work, told ABC News.

Federal money and other options

Federal funding could also help support climate resiliency in public schools, Denk said.

The Department of Education's 2021 Climate Adaptation Plan, which addresses the agency's climate risks and vulnerabilities, noted that climate initiatives can be \"very costly,\" though the department \"has only a handful of small grant programs that fund school infrastructure or relate directly to climate change.\"

\"[Education Department] leadership will need to support and fund new initiatives to meet the objectives of climate adaptation, making projects a priority in capital planning,\" the plan stated.

Legislators are also spotlighting the funding needs. One proposed congressional bill would put $40 billion toward green infrastructure projects and other improvements to help public schools prepare for the impacts of climate change.

\"PHOTO:
Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Students give a tour of an area with solar panels at Discovery Elementary School on Nov. 4, 2019 in Arlington, Va. The energy efficient school teaches students about renewable energy, waste recycling and other responsible environmental approaches.
>

Clean energy has its own economic incentives. Discovery, in Arlington, has \"significant\" energy savings, with the energy bill less than $15,000 a year, versus $125,000 for a comparable elementary school, Lin said. The Arlington School District has pursued solar power purchase agreements as a further cost-saving measure at its Fleet and Cardinal elementary schools, she added.

Solar microgrids offer an \"unparalleled trifecta\" of economic, environmental and resilience benefits, Lewis said. The Santa Barbara School District is poised to have nearly $8 million in bill savings alone over a 28-year fixed-rate power purchase agreement for solar energy, according to the Clean Coalition.

\"It's kind of a no brainer, if you can just get school districts to start thinking about it,\" Lewis said.

In other ways, these efforts are priceless, Gearhart said.

\"The benefits of this far outweigh any costs,\" the educator said. \"Every child should have a playground that's well-planned, executed and beautiful as part of their school environment.\"

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