All fourth graders and their families in Santa Cruz County will be able to see America’s most beautiful places next year for free thanks to the county office of education and the U.S. government.

Three-thousand passes to national parks were delivered to the county this month to be handed out in 10 different school districts. They will be given to fourth graders through the end of January, and are good through August of 2024. Students and their families need only flash the pass at the ranger at any of 2,000 national parks. The pass admits all children under 16 and all adults in up to one passenger vehicle.

The towering majesty of Yosemite Falls is just one of more than 2,000 national parks and monuments that fourth graders and their families can access for free as part of the Every Kid Outdoors program. (Courtesy Paul McHugh)

“Few experiences are as powerful and transformative as visiting our nation’s National Parks and Monuments,” said Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Faris Sabbah in a statement released by his office. “I am thrilled that we’ve been able to work with our regional partners and school districts to make access to these natural wonders easier than ever for all 4th graders in Santa Cruz County.”

The 2019 federal Every Kid Outdoors Act has been a big part of providing this access. According to the county, research shows that without free access, 73 percent of children would never have visited a national park. Researchers also said these children are more likely to continue to visit parks for the rest of their lives if they experienced them with their family or school at age 10.

Up until now, families had to know about the program already, go online, and print the passes, meaning awareness and participation in the national parks program has been low.

“The entire Bureau of Land Management distributed just over 2,200 of these passes in 2022,” said Zachary Ormsby, field manager at the BLM California Central Coast field office. Since not enough families seemed to know about the program, Ornsby worked with County Supervisor Justin Cummings to make sure every family of a fourth grader in their area would get a pass and have an opportunity to visit a national park.

Families don’t have to be in Santa Cruz County to get a pass, they just have to have a fourth grader.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.