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Forty other states are planning environmental literacy initiatives, according to a Maryland state official.

Maryland has become the first state to mandate an environmental literacy requirement for all graduating students.

A new policy adopted by the state board of education requires public schools to work lessons about conservation, sustainable growth, and studies about the natural world into a variety of subjects.

“The language in the bylaw says that the environmental education has to be in place preK-12 and has to be multidisciplinary and reside within current curriculum offerings,” said Gary Hedges, the science specialist with the Maryland state board of education. “It’s infused into science, social studies, health, fine arts—the new Common Core mathematics and language arts [standards] even have connections to environmental literacy.”

The requirement will go into effect for ninth graders entering high school for the 2011-12 school year, but it later will be applied to all students in grades preK-12.

Don Baugh, head of the No Child Left Inside Coalition, said that teachers who already are rewriting curriculum to align with Common Core goals simply will incorporate environmental content.

Professional development will help “train the teachers in how to take and use the local environment as a classroom for reaching the learning objectives and ultimately give the students a rewarding and engaging experience,” Baugh said. “Research shows it will help the students achieve better in all subject areas as well as prepare them for the 21^st century, in particular green jobs and environmental stewardship.”

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who called the bill “a defining moment for education in Maryland,” said the new environmental literacy mandate will not require any additional funding or staff, but it might allow Maryland to receive federal funding for green instruction if the federal No Child Left Inside legislation passes.

Sponsored by Maryland representative John Sarbanes, the federal bill would authorize funding to help teach students about environmental literacy, healthy living, and sound nutrition. Critics of the bill say it’s intended to spread a political agenda to children; Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., has been quoted as saying: “The federal government should not be imposing special interest-driven doctrine through educational policy, and we’ll fight to ensure that doesn’t happen with this or any other bill.”

Hedges said Maryland has had some form of environmental literacy legislation since 1990.

“Getting the regulation passed was easy. The hard part now is implementing this in school systems,” he said.

The actual content of the environmental literacy instruction will be decided locally, at the county level. Counties will have until April to present their curricula to the state superintendent for approval.

“There’s not an ideological push from anywhere as to what content ought to be, so counties can completely decide how to present the various sides of an issue to teach critical thinking and problem solving skills,” said Baugh.

“We’ve got 24 [counties] in Maryland, and all of their environmental literacy plans are likely to look a bit different,” Hedges said. “And that’s good.”

He added that 40 other states are now seeking to develop their own environmental literacy plans.