Contacto Verde: nature and agriculture hours every semester

Contacto Verde is the programme guaranteeing public school students a minimum number of hours each semester in direct contact with nature and, since Act 141-2026, with agriculture too: workshops, guided visits and projects at natural reserves, high-ecological-value spaces and working farms.

Public education system students, at every level: the Article 2 policy speaks of promoting these programmes and activities “at every level of the public education system”. It also reaches teachers, through the training component, and families, because the policy includes encouraging family participation in ecological and agricultural activities.

• Nothing the student or family must apply for: Article 3 places the duty on the Programme, attached to the Department of Education and developed in coordination with Agriculture and Natural and Environmental Resources.Verified against the official source
• That the sites for agricultural activities have been identified by the Coordination Committee as places where students may come into contact with and take part in agricultural production activities posing no danger or physical risk to them.Verified against the official source

• The law asks the family for no documents and publishes no form: it is not a procedure, it is a programme the Department of Education must offer. Any study-trip permission your school asks for comes from its own rules, not from this Act.

1. 1

   Step 1: What the Programme guarantees, and what it does not say

   Article 3 says the main purpose is developing a school environmental management programme related to agriculture “that guarantees a minimum of contact hours of environmental and agricultural education each academic semester”. Note what the law does not write: how many hours. The text speaks of a minimum but sets no figure, and we are not going to invent one. That figure, if it exists, is in the regulation the Act orders adopted.

2. 2

   Step 2: What students do in those hours

   The law describes them: workshops, guided visits and projects carried out in areas identified as natural reserves or spaces of high ecological value, as well as on farms in agricultural production, including but not limited to hydroponic, agroecological, aquaponic or similar projects. Article 6 adds that the Department of Education shall offer workshops, educational talks and guided visits to natural reserves or high-ecological-value areas, coordinable with DRNA, and that it may coordinate with Agriculture workshops, talks and visits to agricultural projects around Puerto Rico, preferably within the zone delimited in the respective educational region.

3. 3

   Step 3: The safety condition is written into the law

   This is the part a parent cares about before any other. New Article 5(e) places on the Coordination Committee the duty to identify farms in agricultural production, agroecological and hydroponic projects, family and community farms where students may come into contact with and take part in agricultural production activities “that pose no danger or physical risk to them”. Site selection is not free: it passes through that filter.

4. 4

   Step 4: Who is responsible: three secretaries

   Article 4 now reads: the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources shall be responsible for implementing the Contacto Verde Programme, and a Coordination Committee is created made up of the three Secretaries or their authorized representatives. If your school tells you “that is Education’s alone”, the law splits the responsibility three ways.

5. 5

   Step 5: Your school can build it with whomever it wants

   Article 6 gives the school a power of its own, worth knowing if you are a teacher or sit on a school council: each school shall have the power to implement this Programme in alliance with environmental organizations, farmer organizations, non-profit institutions, 4-H clubs or others of similar interest. There is no need to wait for a central initiative to come down.

6. 6

   Step 6: Teachers get training too

   That same article closes with this: the Contacto Verde Programme shall have a training component for Department of Education teachers, on content topics, environmental interpretation techniques, the importance of food security and coordinating study trips.

7. 7

   Step 7: How it is paid for, and who reports

   Article 8 provides that the three departments shall identify the funds required to implement the Programme and include them in their annual budget request, and authorizes the three agencies to accept private donations for its development and implementation. In addition, once the Act’s provisions have been met, it shall be the Department of Education’s duty to report to the Legislative Assembly, through the Secretariats of both Bodies, on the steps taken.

At your school and its corresponding educational region: the Programme is attached to the Department of Education and developed in coordination with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. There is no application to file. The law publishes no address, phone, portal or form, and creates no complaint procedure.

• Looking in the law for how many hours: it guarantees a minimum each academic semester but writes no figure.
• Believing it is only environmental education: since Act 141-2026 the Programme expressly integrates agriculture, including working farms and hydroponic, agroecological and aquaponic projects.
• Thinking only Education is responsible: Article 4 makes Education, Agriculture and Natural and Environmental Resources responsible for implementation.
• Assuming the school must wait for a central initiative: each school has the power to implement it in alliance with environmental, farmer, non-profit organizations or 4-H clubs.
• Assuming any farm will do: the Committee must identify sites where the activities pose no danger or physical risk to students.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico

  Educación

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov