Jackie Ostfeld
This fall, I’m excited to start a new adventure with my kids. Every September 1, each new class of fourth graders becomes eligible to receive their national Every Kid Outdoors park pass. The pass is their ticket to explore and enjoy America the Beautiful, and they can use it to visit all federally managed public lands, waters and shores for free for the full school year and the following summer.
When the Every Kid Outdoors program was first established in 2015, it was with the promise that over the next decade or so, every child in America would have an opportunity to experience their public lands and waters. The program was launched in the leadup to the centennial of the National Park Service. It was immediately popular with kids, families and schools across the country. Private and public investments poured into the program to ensure that it didn’t stop with the pass, and so that children with limited opportunities to get outdoors were first in line to participate.
The program was a hit in those early years, but unfortunately it has suffered from a lack of investment and promotion in recent years. Recent data from the federal government shows that nearly 1.5 million vouchers were requested through the Every Kid Outdoors website, but only 144,000 of those vouchers were redeemed at federal recreation sites during the 2022-23 school year. We can do better than that, right?
My son Dylan was born in 2015 when the Every Kid Outdoors program was just rolling out. Nine years later, he is a fourth grader. Even though he has been fortunate to have had a park experience before, he’s still pretty excited to get his Every Kid Outdoors pass and take our family on adventures. He’s even more excited to share the news with his friends and classmates at school.
Each pass will admit all children under sixteen years old in your family and up to three adults for free, whether you arrive by car, or better yet bicycle, until August 31, 2025. Teachers, educators, camp directors, home-schoolers and even after-school program leaders can also download activities and print paper vouchers for their students if they want to incorporate a park experience into a field trip.
We’re just getting started over here. Step one of getting Dylan's Every Kid Outdoors pass was a cinch. We visited www.everykidoutdoors.gov for inspiration and to begin our journey. On the site, you can click through various prompts to help guide your experience - for example, you can share whether you want to go on a nature walk, time travel or go swimming. With lots of ideas in mind, the next step is to simply enter your zip code and voila – you are in. Print your Every Kid Outdoors voucher and decide where you want to take it first. On the website, you can find a variety of options nearby where you can exchange your paper voucher for a durable Every Kid Outdoors pass.
The closest place for us was Great Falls National Park in Virginia. The bad news first - we weren’t able to find any public transit to get to the park, so we had to drive. The great news - Great Falls allows dogs, so we were able to bring the whole family. When we got to the park kiosk, we showed the park ranger our paper voucher and she asked my kids which one of them was in fourth grade. Dylan spoke up and she handed him his pass with a marker to sign his name on the back. Then we were in.
We parked by the visitor center, which unfortunately was closed. From there we got on a very simple flat walking path. It would be great for families with small kids, because you can easily walk a stroller or roll a wheelchair on this main path, and the signage is excellent. If your kids are like mine, they are drawn to big rocks. Dylan found a rocky trail that led down to the Falls and beelined for the trail. Within minutes, Dylan, his little brother, and our dog were climbing down the rocks. They discovered “forts” and tested their balance as they leapt from rock to rock, with their less nimble parents trying to keep up. We spent about two hours playing on the rocks and viewing the raging river. We never made it to any other part of the park because the kids didn’t want to leave. If we had thought ahead and brought a picnic dinner, we could have stayed longer, but we didn’t expect them to want to stay so long.
When I asked Dylan about his Every Kid Outdoors pass, he told me he was excited to have it because it meant spending more time with his family and friends. Time to unwind as a family is hard to come by these days, but the Every Kid Outdoors program is a reminder to make the time. You don’t need to hop on a plane to enjoy your Every Kid Outdoors pass. There are dozens of options near you, no matter where you live.
In the Washington, D.C. area alone we can explore the nature trails at Rock Creek Park, get some roller-skating in at Anacostia Park and learn about freedom fighters and civil rights activists at the Frederick Douglass and Mary McLeod Bethune Council House national historic sites. In between school and work and extracurriculars, we’ll be planning our next trip.
It is prime time right now to take advantage of the Every Kid Outdoors pass, because the program is scheduled to sunset in 2026 unless Congress acts fast. Right now, the Senate is considering a bipartisan outdoor recreation package called the EXPLORE Act which would extend the program for several more years. The House of Representatives passed the bill more than three months ago, but the program is in jeopardy unless the Senate takes immediate action. So make sure you get your Every Kid Outdoors pass, and reach out to your Senator so kids for years to come will be able to get theirs too.
