United States Environmental Protection Agency
Adequate air ventilation is a vital part of ensuring good IAQ. Facilities and maintenance staff can use this checklist to help examine:
United States Environmental Protection Agency
IAQ Team members, administrators, inspectors and others involved in creating a healthy indoor school environment can use this checklist to conduct thorough top to bottom assessments of the entire school facility.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Teachers play an important role in promoting good IAQ in their classrooms. This checklist can help in:
United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2013
This guide is intended for use by school officials and child care providers responsible for the maintenance and/or safety of school and child care facilities including the drinking water. The purpose of this guide is to describe the importance of implementing best management practices for drinking water in schools and child care facilities and how a school or child care facility would go about implementing these practices. This guide is specifically for schools and child care facilities that receive water from water utilities or water suppliers such as cities, towns and water districts. This guide is not a regulation itself, nor does it change or substitute for those provisions and regulations. Thus, it does not impose legally binding requirements on EPA, states, municipal water systems, schools or child care facilities. This guide does not confer legal rights or impose legal obligations upon any member of the public. While EPA has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information in this guide the obligations of the regulated community are determined by statutes, regulations or other legally binding requirements. In the event of a conflict between the information in this guide and any statute or regulation, this document would not be controlling.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2013
This guide is intended for use by school officials and child care providers responsible for the maintenance and/or safety of school and child care facilities including the drinking water. The purpose of this guide is to describe the importance of implementing best management practices for drinking water in schools and child care facilities and how a school or child care facility would go about implementing these practices. This guide is specifically designed for schools and child care facilities that have their own well and, therefore, are classified as a public water system. This guide is not a regulation itself, nor does it change or substitute for those provisions and regulations. Thus, it does not impose legally binding requirements on EPA, states, public water systems, schools or child care facilities. This guide does not confer legal rights or impose legal obligations upon any member of the public. While EPA has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information in this guide the obligations of the regulated community are determined by statutes, regulations or other legally binding requirements. In the event of a conflict between the information in this guide and any statute or regulation, this document would not be controlling.
Center for Disease Control (CDC), 2014
Drinking water can contribute to good health, and schools are in a unique position to promote healthy, dietary behaviors, including drinking water. More than 95% of children and adolescents are enrolled in schools, and students typically spend at least 6 hours at school each day. Ensuring that students have access to safe, free drinking water throughout the school environment gives them a healthy alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages before, during, and after school. Access to safe, free drinking water helps to increase students’ overall water consumption, maintain hydration, and reduce energy intake, if substituted for sugar-sweetened beverages. In addition, adequate hydration may improve cognitive function among children and adolescents, which is important for learning. Drinking water, if fluoridated, also plays a role in preventing dental caries (cavities).
This website captures Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for multiple stakeholder groups, including homeowners; engineers, surveyors, and architects; and insurance professionals and lenders, and floodplain managers. Select the links below to get answers to your most frequently asked questions.
This resources provides frequently asked questions regarding FEMA residential and community safe rooms guidance. This information may be helpful for those in tornado and hurricane prone areas.
If you need additional information, please contact the FEMA Safe Room Helpline by email at saferoom@fema.dhs.gov or by calling 866-927-2104.
NCES, 2006
During the last decade, the U.S. Department of Education has released reports describing and evaluating the physical condition of schools (Lewis et al. 2000; U.S. General Accounting Office [GAO] 1995). According to a 1995 report from the General Accounting Office, this nation has invested hundreds of billions of dollars on school infrastructure so that children are properly educated and prepared for the future in school facilities that are well-maintained, clean, safe, and secure (U.S. GAO 1995).
Decent, safe, and secure facilities are essential to successful educational programs. Creating a safe school environment is necessary in order for teachers to teach effectively and for students to be receptive to learning. While typical thinking regarding “safe school” environments often involves a school that is free of weapons, illegal drugs, student intimidation, and theft, other factors regarding the physical condition and appearance of school facilities, such as noise levels and cleanliness are important to consider as well.
Recent research suggests that a school’s physical environment also can play a major role in academic performance.
can trigger a host of health problems — including asthma and allergies — that increase absenteeism and reduce academic performance. Research links key environmental factors to health outcomes and students’ ability to perform. Improvements in school environmental quality can enhance academic performance, as well as teacher and staff productivity and retention. To learn more, read the Quick Reference Guide for Student Health and Academic Performance.
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