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Building Educational Success Together (2006).

In 1995, a federal report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) estimated that $112 billion was needed to bring the nation's school facilities into good repair. Subsequent studies estimated it would take more than $320 billion to build new schools to handle swelling enrollments, renovate aging buildings, and equip all buildings with the technologies needed to prepare students for success in the 21st century. By far, though, the most troubling findings were that the academically neediest students--minorities and impoverished students--were most likely to attend the most decrepit facilities. Now, for the first time ever, this report provides a comprehensive analysis of who has benefited from school construction spending across the nation. In this report, the Building Educational Success Together (BEST) research team looks at how much was spent, what was accomplished, and which students and communities saw benefits. The analysis looks at the decade from 1995, when the GAO report was first released, to 2004, the most current information available. The authors found unprecedented spending and growth in school facility construction across the country, but this report confirms what many educators and communities have suspected for years: these billions of dollars spent on facilities have not been equally available to affluent and low-income communities and for minority and white students. Overall, the schools in poor condition 10 years ago received the least investment in their facilities, even as the nation's schools have seen record spending in school facilities. This report is a step in recognizing the tremendous opportunity and challenge of providing the highest quality education and the highest quality school buildings to all our children.

BESTGrowthDisparity

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Environmental Protection Agency (Daly, S.) (2005). (EPA 816-F-05-030)

This document was designed for schools and child care facilities that meet the definition of a public water system and therefore must comply with the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) requirements.

EPA_Lead and Copper Rule

Published on

Pardee, M. (2005).

Resource Guide Volume 4: Creating Playgrounds for Early Childhood Facilities, published by LISC’s Community Investment Collaborative for Kids (CICK). This guide assists early childhood programs with the planning of a center’s outdoor space to achieve a successful natural environment for young children. It includes suggestions for equipment and materials that support a range of activities that children can enjoy outdoors.

CreatingPlaygroundsforEarlyChildhood

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Cooner, S. A., Wooldridge, M. D., Fitzpatrick, K., & Ford, G. L. (2004). (0-4286-S)

The State of Texas, particularly in the large urban areas, has recently experienced considerable population growth. This growth has produced new schools on sites near highways originally designed for low volumes and high speeds. Another trend is the higher proportion of children being transported to schools in private vehicles. These realities make it important to consider the design of roadways within and around schools. Equally important is the consideration of the location and design of the school site, preferably during the planning stages, in order to establish safe and efficient operations. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has focused attention on these issues through its Precious Cargo Program. Precious Cargo allows TxDOT to review school site plans and make recommendations prior to construction. TxDOT has assisted independent school districts (ISDs) through application of transportation principles and fundamentals, but its efforts have sometimes been limited by the lack of knowledge of the specific problems associated with school transportation needs and the lack of acceptable guidelines. This research addressed these limitations and provided an opportunity to enhance Precious Cargo by providing TxDOT staff, ISD personnel, and the other stakeholders with guidelines and good examples for the design and operation of roadway facilities around schools.

View Guide

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Wargo, J. (2004). (Doc. 2)

This document includes information to create a healthy school environment, and to identify and modify aspects of the physical environment that jeopardize safety and health. However, physical interventions alone will not suffice. The document also contains guidance to ensure that positive changes in a school’s physical environment are supported, reinforced and sustained by school health policy, skills-based health education and school health services, the core components of an effective school health programme as called for in the international initiative to Focus Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH)

Wargo_ThePhysicalSchoolEnvironment

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Branham, D. (2004).

Objective. This article looks at the effect of school infrastructure on student attendance and drop-out rates. Methods. Using the school as the unit of analysis, Tobit analysis is performed to analyze 226 Houston Independent School District schools. Results. The quality of school infrastructure has a significant effect on school attendance and drop-out rates. Students are less likely to attend schools in need of structural repair, schools that use temporary structures, and schools that have understaffed janitorial services. Conclusions. School districts who wish to maximize attendance and minimize drop-out rates should avoid temporary solutions to school building inadequacies and provide students, teachers, and administrators with quality permanent structure schools, and quality janitorial staffs to maintain those schools.

View Article

 

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National Safe KIDS Campaign (2004).

In this brief fact sheet, SAFE KIDS presented data representing 35 states and the District of Columbia at multiple nationwide intersections to observe numerous variables in physical environment and driver behavior. In order to understand how these elements affect a child's ability to cross the street, the observers determined the most likely path for a child navigating the intersection.

National Safe KIDS Campaign_Kids at the Crosswalk (2004)

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Cooner, S. A., Fitzpatrick, K., Wooldridge, M. D., Crawford, J. A., & Ford, G. L. (2003). (0-4286-2)

The state of Texas, particularly the large urban areas, has experienced considerable population growth in recent years. This growth has produced new schools in areas near highways originally designed for low volumes and relatively highspeeds. Another trend is the higher proportion of children being transported to and from schools in private vehicles.These realities, and many of the other issues associated with traffic around schools, make it important to aggressively consider the design of roadways within and around schools to ensure the safest possible traffic environment. Equally important is the consideration of the location and design of the school site, preferably during the planning stages, in order to establish safe and efficient operations. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is currently focusing attention on these issues through its Precious Cargo Program. Precious Cargo allows TxDOT staff to review school site plans and make recommendations before the schools are built. Since the program's inception, more than 180 schools in 70 various school districts statewide have seen traffic safety improvements around their schools or future school sites. This report contains the recommended school site planning guidelines for transportation-related elements such as site selection, general site requirements and design, bus operations, parent drop-off/pick-up zone, driveways, turn lanes, signing and marking, parking, and pedestrian and bicycle access. The research team based these guidelines on a comprehensive review of existing guidelines and the results of field studies at school sites in Texas. The report provides examples of good practices and also examples of practices to avoid for many of the more prominent guidelines. The guidelines are focused on transportation design, operations and safety within school sites - with a particular focus on the parent and bus drop-off/pick-up zones. The final chapter of the report contains a site plan review checklist that TxDOT engineers, field crews, architects, and school district personnel can use to coordinate efforts and make sure that school access is safe and efficient.

View Guide

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California Emergency Management Agency (2003).

The recommendations included in this document are intended to reduce seismic hazards associated with the non-structural components of schools buildings, including mechanical systems, ceiling systems, partitions, light fixtures, furnishings, and other building contents. It identifies potential earthquake hazards and provides recommendations for mitigating those hazards. The non-structural components and building contents identified in this publication are listed in one of the following three sections: ceiling and overhead, walls and wall-mounted, and furniture and equipment. Within each section, an information sheet is provided for each non-structural component or building content item. Each information sheet provides a description of the item, a description of the potentially hazardous condition, and recommendations to reduce the hazard. An "earthquake hazards checklist" is also provided at the back of the publication to assist district staff in conducting a non-structural hazards survey.

Gov Office of Emergency Services_Nonstructural Earthquake Hazards

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United States Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2003). (FEMA P-428)

The purpose of this primer is to provide the design community and school administrators with the basic principles and techniques to make a school that is safe from terrorist attacks.

FEMA - Primer to design safe school projects in case of terrorist attacks

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