Any educator who attends a professional development event is welcome to request Professional Development Units (PDUs)/Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for the time they attended the event.

The PDU/CDU certificate will include the number of direct engagement hours to the nearest 30 minutes. Breaks, mealtimes, and any other activities that are not “intended to increase your effectiveness as an educator” are not included in engagement hours. 

PDU/CEU certificates can be requested through the Stipend, Substitute Reimbursement, and PDU/CEU Request Survey.

Our certificate includes:

• Educator’s name.
• Workshop name, date(s), and location(s).
• The total number of direct engagement hours, to the nearest 30 minutes. 
• Oregon State University logo.
• Signature from our Curriculum and Professional Development Coordinator.

The Stipend, Substitute Reimbursement, and PDU/CEU Request Survey includes space to indicate whether your district/governing organization requires additional information on the certificate.

If you are required to use a specific form for PDUs/CEUs and need a signature, please contact Kristi Backe for assistance.

Nonformal outdoor school educators are eligible for a stipend if they meet all of the following criteria: 

• Are not being compensated by an employer or from another source while attending the training(s).
• Participate fully in the professional development event(s), including completion of all surveys.
• Meet at least ONE of the following criteria:
• Currently work/volunteer for an outdoor school provider or site that serves students attending outdoor school with Measure 99 funds.
• Have accepted an offer to work/volunteer for an outdoor school provider or site that serves students attending outdoor school with Measure 99 funds.
• Have worked/volunteered for an outdoor school provider or site in the last two years AND plan to work/volunteer for an outdoor school provider or site during the current/upcoming school year. The outdoor school provider or site must serve (or be contracted to begin serving) students attending outdoor school using Measure 99 funds.
• Have a Gray Family Foundation outdoor school planning grant. 
• Or, have facilitated/co-facilitated a professional development event specifically for Oregon outdoor school educators in the last year AND plan to facilitate/co-facilitate a professional development event specifically for Oregon outdoor school educators in the current or upcoming school year.

Formal educators are eligible for a stipend if they meet all of the following criteria: 

• Are not being compensated by an employer or from another source while attending the training(s). For example, if the workshop is during the summer, the teacher is not being paid by a summer contract. (Substitute reimbursements are available for formal educators who attend professional development events while they are being compensated by their district. See below.)
• Supports students attending outdoor school via Measure 99 funds.
• Participates fully in the professional development event(s), including completion of all surveys.

If there are additional eligibility requirements for a specific workshop or workshop series, those requirements will be listed in the workshop description on our Events and Workshops page.

An individual educator is eligible for a maximum of $200 per year in outdoor school professional development stipends.

Here is how the stipend process will work for most standalone workshops:

1. During or after the workshop, you will complete a post-workshop survey.
   • For online workshops: The post-workshop survey will be sent to you as a personalized link at the email address that you used to register for the session. You must complete this survey to be eligible for a stipend for the workshop. The survey software will record whether you have completed the survey but will anonymize all of your responses. (In other words, it tells us whether you have completed the survey, but it doesn’t tell us which responses are yours.)
   • For in-person workshops: You will complete a survey at the end of the workshop. You must complete this survey to be eligible for a stipend for the workshop. The workshop facilitator will make note of who has submitted the survey. Your survey responses will remain anonymous.
2. After the workshop, you will complete the Stipend, Substitute Reimbursement, and PDU/CEU Request Survey. You must complete the eligibility survey within 14 days of the workshop. If you attended another workshop within 14 days, you only need to fill out one Eligibility Survey, as long as you do so within 14 days of the first workshop. (If the workshops are part of a series, follow the instructions below.)
3. Once you have completed the eligibility survey and the post-workshop survey, a member of the OSU Extension Service Outdoor School team will confirm your eligibility and your full participation in the event and will contact you to begin the process of adding you as a vendor in the OSU system.This process can take several weeks to complete. (If you already have an OSU vendor number, you should be able to skip this step.)
4. After your OSU vendor number is established, we will pay your stipend.

For workshop series, it is our policy to pay stipends as a single payment at the end of the series rather than as individual payments after each session. If you would like to request an exception to this policy, please contact Kristi Backe. 

Here is how the stipend process will work for most professional development series:

1. After EACH session you attend, you will complete a post-workshop survey. 
   • For online workshops: The post-workshop survey will be sent to you as a personalized link at the email address that you used to register for the session. You must complete this survey to be eligible for a stipend for the workshop. The survey software will record whether you have completed the survey but will anonymize all of your responses. (In other words, it tells us whether you have completed the survey, but it doesn’t tell us which responses are yours.)
   • For in-person workshops: You will complete a survey at the end of the workshop. You must complete this survey to be eligible for a stipend for the workshop. The workshop facilitator will make note of who has submitted the survey. Your survey responses will remain anonymous.
2. After the first session you attend, you will complete the Stipend, Substitute Reimbursement, and PDU/CEU Request Survey. You must complete the eligibility survey within 14 days of the final session in the series, though you are welcome to complete it any time after the first session you attend. You only need to complete the Eligibility Survey once for the entire series.
3. Once you have completed the eligibility survey, a member of the OSU Extension Service Outdoor School team will confirm your eligibility and your full participation in the event and will contact you to begin the process of adding you as a vendor in the OSU system. This process can take several weeks to complete, which is why we allow educators to start the process at the beginning of the series even though the single payment will be made at the end of the series. (If you already have an OSU vendor number, you should be able to skip this step.)
4. At the end of the series, we will calculate your total stipend amount using the post-workshop survey records and workshop attendance records.
5. We will pay your stipend as a single payment.

The OSU Extension Service Outdoor School program will reimburse schools/districts for substitute costs based on the following conditions:

• The educator supports students attending outdoor school via Measure 99 funds. 
• The school/district hired a substitute to cover the duties of a formal educator from that school/district during the time the educator was attending an OSU Extension Service Outdoor School-sponsored professional development event. It is the school’s/district’s responsibility to hire and pay the substitute. 
• The reimbursement is for the actual cost paid for substitute teacher(s) (up to $280/day per substitute). If the public school/district receives reimbursement for these costs from another source, they are not eligible to receive reimbursement from the OSU Extension Service Outdoor School program via Measure 99 funding. 
• The educator participates fully in the professional development event, including completion of all surveys. 

Here is how the substitute reimbursement process will work:

1. After the workshop, you will complete a post-workshop survey.
   • For online workshops: The post-workshop survey will be sent to you as a personalized link at the email address that you used to register for the session. You must complete this survey to be eligible for a stipend for the workshop. The survey software will record whether you have completed the survey but will anonymize all of your responses. (In other words, it tells us whether you have completed the survey, but it doesn’t tell us which responses are yours.)
   • For in-person workshops: You will complete a survey at the end of the workshop. You must complete this survey to be eligible for a stipend for the workshop. The workshop facilitator will make note of who has submitted the survey. Your survey responses will remain anonymous. 
2. After the workshop, you will complete the Stipend, Substitute Reimbursement, and PDU/CEU Request Survey. You must complete the request within 14 days of the workshop. If the workshop is part of a series, you can complete a single request for all sessions in the series. Please make this request within 14 days of the final session in the series.
3. Once you have completed the reimbursement request survey and the post-workshop survey, a member of the OSU Extension Service Outdoor School team will confirm your full participation in the event and will contact you to begin the process of reimbursing your school/district for the actual cost of the substitute.
4. We will reimburse the school/district directly for the actual cost of the substitute.