Take Action to Improve Indoor Air Quality in Schools

Actions to Improve Your School's IAQ

1. Access the IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit today!  This Action Kit provides guidance and tools to help resolve current IAQ problems, prevent future IAQ problems and maintain good indoor air quality in your school.
2. Educate staff, students, and parents about the importance of good IAQ and their role in making the school environment as healthy as possible.
3. Utilize the IAQ Design Tools for Schools  guidance or Protecting IAQ During School Energy Efficiency Retrofit Projects with Energy Savings Plus Health Guidelines to help school districts, architects, and facility planners design and construct the next generation of high performance schools.

Facility Managers

Create a Healthy Indoor Environment

Facility managers in K-12 schools work hard every day to ensure a healthy, high-quality learning and teaching environment for students and staff.  Your goal is to provide energy-efficient facilities that have quality lighting, comfortable temperatures, and good IAQ — all within a tight budget. The Indoor Environments Division provides technical guidance on how to maintain and operate your school facility by using integrated, whole-building approaches which are designed to protect occupant health while saving energy and money.

"We are pleased to see IAQ Tools for Schools being embraced by school systems around the country.  It is an important part of our efforts to create and sustain asthma-friendly schools."

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average school building is 42 years old.  After 40 years a school building begins to rapidly deteriorate if it is not properly maintained.  The IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit is designed to provide you with the tools and information needed to fix and prevent IAQ problems and maintain a healthy indoor environment with minimal effort and cost.

Taking a proactive approach to preventing IAQ problems will save your school significant costs in the long run.  With everyone working together, you may also be able to reduce the amount of time you currently spend on IAQ issues.

Negative Impacts of Poor IAQ 

• Accelerate deterioration and reduce efficiency of the school's physical plant and equipment.
• Affect student comfort, the learning environment and attendance.
• Increase the likelihood that schools will have to be closed temporarily (for repairs) or permanently.
• Lead to costly repairs if maintenance and proactive measures are deferred.  Preventative measures will save money over time.
• Reduce the productivity of teachers and staff due to discomfort, sickness or absenteeism.
• Increase the potential for long-term health problems among students and staff.
• Strain the relationship between administrators and facilities staff.

The IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit should be an essential part of every facility manager's library, serving as a daily reference guide and management tool.

School Officials

School officials interact with all members of the school community, including building staff, administrative staff, teachers, students, parents, local government officials, and many others. That puts them in an ideal position to be leaders and share basic information about creating healthy indoor school environments, including managing indoor air quality, or IAQ, with everyone who can work to make a difference. Maintaining good IAQ requires a coordinated management approach that provides for building occupant education and establishes some routine inspection and maintenance policies.

"IAQ management was never a question, it was an answer. It supports the health of our students, so they can attend school and meet their full potential. It supports the health of our staff, without whom educating students is impossible. Finally, it helps me as an administrator run a more efficient school district, where I can stretch my budget further and channel limited resources where they are needed most: in the classroom."

Failure to address poor indoor air quality can:

• Result in an unfavorable learning environment for students, reduce the performance and effectiveness of teachers and staff and increase absenteeism;
• Generate negative publicity that can damage the school's and administration's image and effectiveness;
• Strain relationships among parents, teachers and the school administration;
• Create liability problems; and
• Accelerate the deterioration and reduce the efficiency of the school's physical plant and equipment.

Top Actions School Officials Can Take to Address IAQ

• Understand the effects of poor IAQ on student and staff productivity and health (review the IAQ and Student Performance information).
• Support and promote a district-wide IAQ management program through policies and plans (read case studies about how other districts have implemented sustainable IAQ management programs).
• According to the School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS), in 2012, 47.7% of school districts had an indoor air quality management program. Among the districts with a program, 82.3% based their program on the IAQ Tools for Schools guidance.

Read the School Official's IAQ Backgrounder (PDF) and review the School Official's Checklist (PDF) for more information.

Teachers, Staff, and Health Professionals

The air quality inside your school affects the health and comfort of every student and staff member. EPA's Science Advisory Board consistently ranks indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health. Poor IAQ is about more than just comfort. It can cause or contribute to short- and long-term health problems, including asthma, respiratory tract infection and disease, allergic reactions, headaches, nasal congestion, eye and skin irritations, coughing, sneezing, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea.

Teachers can be powerful advocates for creating healthy indoor environments, including improving school indoor air quality. As they are on the front lines, teachers can perceive when IAQ changes affect students and themselves. By being involved in creating a clean and healthy learning environment, teachers can promote health, wellness and academic productivity.

"The most effective school IAQ management teams often include a concerned teacher who is passionate about keeping students healthy and encouraging their top performance. Use your voice to promote school IAQ management and other environmental health issues in schools."

As a school-based health professional — district health officer, nurse, hygienist, or dietician — you are responsible for the health and well-being of staff and students. School nurses, in particular, play a primary role in the early detection of an IAQ problem when observing children who are sick. Illness due to poor IAQ may not, however, produce easily recognizable symptoms. If multiple pollutants are involved, tracing the causes of the student's discomfort or illness will be your challenge.

Improving IAQ can reduce the number of student visits to the nurse's office, reduce absenteeism due to illness, and enhance the general health and well-being of all students and staff.

Top Actions Teachers Staff and Health Professionals Can Take to Address IAQ

• Keep ventilation units in classrooms free of clutter.
• Report any IAQ issues and maintenance problems occurring in classrooms and hallways immediately.
• If classroom pets cause allergic reactions or trigger asthma attacks, either relocate the pet away from sensitive students or consider replacing the animal with a classroom fish or an animal that will not trigger allergy and asthma attacks in any students. Some school districts have policies that ban pets with fur or feathers.
• Reduce the number of items made of cloth in your classroom, including furniture, draperies or stuffed animals. These materials attract dust mites, which can negatively impact sensitive students.
• Practice chemical management in your classrooms, if appropriate.
• Understand the effects of poor IAQ on student and staff productivity and health (review the IAQ and Student Performance information and resources).

Resources for Teachers Staff and Health Professionals

• Refer to the IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit, Teacher's IAQ Backgrounder, (PDF) and Teacher's Checklist ( PDF).
• Review the ​Managing Asthma in the School Environment webpage.
• Review the Indoor Air Pollution: An Introduction for Health Professionals webpage.

Parents and Students