Wildfire Education in Washington School Districts

Wildfire education is an important and often overlooked unit of a comprehensive public school education. Ecology, earth science, and disaster preparedness for events like earthquakes and house fires are examples of subjects already taught to students in schools throughout Washington; however, given the effects of climate change, wildfire education warrants much greater integration into school district curricula. To assess the general extent of wildfire education in Washington state, Washington state public school districts were contacted and asked if they provided their students with wildfire education. A majority of the school districts contacted reported that they either do not formally include wildfire education in their curriculum or, if it is discussed, it is only part of discussions about other topics. Overall, wildfire education in public schools is lacking and action should be taken to increase and standardize wildfire education in schools. Further research should be done to better understand the types of wildfire education programs available to various age groups and barriers to teaching about wildfire and wildfire safety in Washington state