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Category: Resources/Research

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014.

ASTHMA IS COMMON AMONG STUDENTS

Approximately 7 million children younger than 18 years of age in the United States have asthma.1
In a classroom of 30 students, about 3 currently have asthma.2 This rate may be higher in densely populated communities or among certain population groups. For instance, among African American children, 1 in 6 has asthma, an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2001 to 2009.3 Among Puerto Rican children, 1 in 5 has asthma, more than double the rate among Hispanic children overall.4 Additionally, there may be students who have asthma but have not been diagnosed.

ASTHMA IS A LEADING CAUSE OF SCHOOL ABSENTEEISM

Studies have shown that many students who have asthma miss school because of their disease. Asthma can lead to absenteeism for a variety
of reasons, such as symptoms, doctor visits, hospitalizations, the need to avoid environmental triggers at school, and sleep deprivation due to nighttime asthma attacks.5 Nearly half of students who have asthma miss at least one day of school each year because of their disease.6 In 2008, on average, students missed 4 days of school because of asthma.7

  1. Akinbami LJ, Moorman JE, Bailey C, Zahran HS, King M, Johnson CA,
    Liu X. Trends in asthma prevalence, health care use, and mortality in the United States, 2001–2010. NCHS Data Brief No. 94. Hyattsville, MD: CDC; 2012.
  2. CDC. Asthma and Schools [online]. Available from www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/asthma. Accessed July 1, 2014.
  3. CDC. Vital Signs: Asthma in the U.S. May 2011. Available from www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/Asthma. Accessed July 1, 2014.
  4. National Health Interview Survey, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC. National Health Interview Survey, 2010. Table 4-1. Available from www.cdc.gov/asthma/nhis/2010/table4-1.htm. Accessed July 1, 2014.
  5. Basch CE. Asthma and the achievement gap among urban minority youth.
    J School Health 2011;81(10):606-13. Available from http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00634.x/full. Accessed September 9, 2014.
  6. CDC. Asthma’s Impact on the Nation. May 8, 2012. Available from www.cdc.gov/asthma/impacts_nation/asthmafactsheet.pdf. Accessed July 1, 2014.
  7. CDC. Vital Signs: Asthma in the U.S. May 2011. Available from www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/Asthma. Accessed July 1, 2014.
  8. Cohen DE. Asthma and school functioning. Health Reports 2010;21(4). Available from www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2010004/article/ 11363-eng.pdf. Accessed July 1, 2014.

UNCONTROLLED ASTHMA CAN LEAD TO DECREASED ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

When compared with students who do not have
a chronic condition, students who have asthma have decreased academic performance, according to standardized test scores and parental reports. More severe asthma is associated with poorer performance.8,9 Lower readiness scores were
found among kindergarteners who have asthma10; and entering school with asthma was found to be linked with lower reading scores after the first year.11 Effective management of asthma can eliminate potential challenges and obstacles to effective learning and academic success.12

ASTHMA CAN BE CONTROLLED— AND SCHOOLS CAN HELP

Through the use of well-coordinated asthma management programs, schools can play an effective role in helping students keep their asthma under control. Learn what your school can do to provide quality care for students who have asthma; be prepared to handle asthma emergencies; create an environment with fewer asthma triggers; and promote education and partnerships that support good asthma control.

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EPA, 2009.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Indoor Air Quality  Tools for Schools (IAQ Tools for Schools) Program to help schools assess and improve indoor air quality (IAQ). IAQ is becoming an increasingly important issue in our nation’s schools. Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population—nearly 56 million people—spend their days inside elementary and secondary schools. Good IAQ assists schools with their core mission—educating children. The background information and activities in this voluntary program are directed toward existing schools in the kindergarten through twelfth grade range, but colleges, universities, preschool, and day-care centers could benefit by applying the principles and activities presented.

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Regional Asthma Management & Prevention (RAMP) & California School-Based Health Alliance, 2015.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by recurrent episodes of wheezing, shortness of breath, and coughing. Asthma symptoms are triggered by a variety of environmental factors: allergens like pollens and cockroaches or irritants like tobacco smoke and air pollution. These environmental asthma triggers cause inflammation, obstruction, and constriction of the lungs’ airways making it difficult—and sometimes impossible—to breathe. Reducing or eliminating exposure to these triggers can improve a patient’s ability to manage their asthma symptoms.

Although there is a broad array of evidence-based interventions to address asthma triggers, many people with asthma continue to be exposed to the factors that make their asthma worse. School-based health centers (SBHCs) are uniquely positioned to address this gap in order to help children breathe easier. While many SBHCs across the country are already playing a key role in helping students manage their asthma by providing quality clinical care and education, there is an opportunity for SBHCs to also be leaders in managing the environmental factors that make asthma worse. This guide describes the types of interventions that SBHC staff can initiate or support to reduce exposure to environmental asthma triggers.

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EPA, 2015.

EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools guidance has been implemented successfully in tens of thousands of schools nationwide. The Framework for Effective School IAQ Management synthesizes the accumulated learning of more than 800 schools involved in a national survey of IAQ management practices; 200 applicants for IAQ Tools for Schools awards; and in- depth interviews, site visits and analysis of five faculty school districts. The Framework provides a common language
to describe the drivers of IAQ program success; detailed guidance on the proven strategies, organizational approaches, and leadership styles that are fundamental to program effectiveness; and a clear vision of the pathway to school IAQ excellence. Its highly flexible and adaptable structure allows any school, regardless of location, size, budget or condition, to use the Framework to launch, reinvigorate and sustain an effective IAQ management program.

The Framework: Key Drivers

The Six Key Drivers are the essential elements of effective and enduring IAQ management programs. Applying a cycle of continuous assessment, planning, action and evaluation, the Six Key Drivers work synergistically to deliver effective school IAQ management programs. The Six Key Drivers are:

  • Organize for success;
  • Communicate with everyone, all the time;
  • Assess your environments continuously;
  • Plan your short- and long-term activities;
  • Act to address structural, institutional and behavioral issues, and
  • Evaluate your results for continuous improvement.The Framework: Technical SolutionsThe Six Technical Solutions define the most common issues that schools need to address to effectively manage IAQ risks. When addressed systematically
    and aggressively, an IAQ program that focuses on the Six Technical Solutions will deliver a healthier school environment. The Six Technical Solutions are grounded in the IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit, the Center for Disease Control’s School Health Policies and Programs Study and the management practices of leading school IAQ programs.

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Environmental Law Institute, 2016.

Energy efficiency continues to be an important component of federal, state, and local efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. School facility upgrades that increase energy efficiency can help school districts advance their educational mission by reducing energy and other operating costs. Facility upgrades that protect and improve indoor air quality (IAQ) also support the core mission of schools by promoting staff and student health, productivity, and attendance. There is now broad recognition that it is possible to achieve both energy efficiency and indoor air quality goals as part of a school retrofit project. When undertaking energy efficiency and other facility upgrades, early consideration of IAQ issues can help schools avoid unintended, negative consequences and reap the twin benefits of energy savings and a healthier, more productive school environment.

State laws, regulations, and guidance can facilitate the integration of IAQ and energy efficiency goals. This report discusses three areas of potential policy development: state funding for school facility upgrades, energy savings performance contracting, and regulation of indoor pollutants during renovation. While these are not the only policy areas ripe for consideration, the examples described throughout the report reflect a variety of strategies for maximizing the health benefits of energy retrofits and other school facility upgrades.

State Funding for School Facility Upgrades

States operate a variety of programs that provide grants, loans, and other financing for school energy efficiency retrofits and other facility upgrades, and these programs are particularly important for school districts that have limited resources for capital-intensive measures. Currently there are few state funding programs that affirmatively require or encourage the integration of IAQ and energy goals, however the report highlights examples of policy strategies that have been adopted and could be expanded in the future. These include:

  •  Establishing energy-related IAQ improvements as allowable or priority uses of energy efficiency funding;
  •  Considering non-energy benefits, such as enhanced IAQ, in awarding energy-efficiency funding; and
  •  Establishing IAQ measures as priorities for general school renovation and repair programs.

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Published on

Environmental Law Institute, 2015.

Early care and education programs play an important role in helping children reach their full potential in school and throughout their lives. Six million children under five years old receive care outside of their homes – about 30 percent of all children in this age group.1 The facilities that provide this care are numerous and diverse, including approximately 300,000 licensed child care centers and child care homes across the country.2 As the number of children in licensed child care has grown, so has public recognition of the importance of the child care setting to children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development.

This recognition has led to significant changes in standards of quality for licensed child care programs. Standards currently in place throughout the U.S. cover a wide array of elements for ensuring a healthy, safe, and enriching environment – from caregiver qualifications and program curriculum, to fire safety and nutrition. In recent years, facility standards for child care have begun to address exposure to environmental hazards as well. This shift reflects greater scientific knowledge of the potential harm to children’s health from exposure to environmental contaminants, as well as the availability of well-established facility operation and maintenance practices that can be put in place to help create healthier indoor environments.

The purpose of this report is to provide information to help states strengthen their laws, regulations, and programs to address indoor environmental contaminants in child care facilities. The report is designed for policymakers, agency officials, non-governmental organizations and associations, and others who work to promote quality child care and advance children’s health. The following chapters offer an overview of how policies currently address several key indoor environmental quality (IEQ) issues in licensed child care facilities. For each issue, the report highlights examples of policy strategies for states to consider, along with notable non-regulatory initiatives that are being implemented by state agencies.

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Published on

Environmental Law Institute, 2015.

In January 2015, the Environmental Law Institute published Reducing Environmental Exposures in Child Care Facilities: A Review of State Policy. The report, prepared jointly by ELI and the Children’s Environmental Health Network, discusses state policies addressing exposure to indoor air contaminants in licensed child care facilities. This paper focuses on another important environmental health issue for child care facilities: drinking water quality.

A variety of national policies and program initiatives aim to ensure that children who spend time in child care facilities drink water throughout the day.1 Ensuring the quality of drinking water at child care facilities is important to children’s healthy development and helps advance the broad goals of early care and education programs. This paper provides an overview of how existing state laws and regulations across the United States address drinking water quality in the licensed child care context, with a particular emphasis on drinking water from private wells.

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Published on

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. 2010.

The OSPI staff, acting as a Work Group for Facilities Maintenance and Operations convened three expert groups to analyze the staffing needs of schools and districts. Expert groups included:

A team of architects who have designed Washington schools and understand their space requirements;

A team of facilities maintenance and grounds professionals with expertise in preventive maintenance of building systems (i.e. heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); electrical; and plumbing) and school grounds; and

A team of operations professionals with expertise in daily cleaning and routine facilities maintenance requirements.

In practice, facility maintenance crews include skilled craftsmen and women who conduct scheduled inspections and services, and who repair and replace building system components. Operations staff members include custodians, grounds workers, and general maintenance crews who respond to emergent and routine maintenance needs.

For the purposes of reporting the findings of this analysis in the context of Washington state’s prototypical school model, the Work Group summarized these roles into two slightly different categories; facilities maintenance and grounds, and custodians. In the prototypical school model, facilities maintenance and grounds staff provide districtwide support while custodians are building based staff.

The work of the Expert Groups informed the Facilities Maintenance and Operations Work Group, and provided the information needed to assess the adequacy of current funding for facilities maintenance and operations staff. The resulting staffing recommendations are based on carefully crafted assumptions about the space required to deliver state-funded education programs, and the staff needed to adequately maintain those spaces.

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Published on

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW INSTITUTE, January 2016.

Energy efficiency continues to be an important component of federal, state, and local efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. School facility upgrades that increase energy efficiency can help school districts advance their educational mission by reducing energy and other operating costs. Facility upgrades that protect and improve indoor air quality (IAQ) also support the core mission of schools by promoting staff and student health, productivity, and attendance. There is now broad recognition that it is possible to achieve both energy efficiency and indoor air quality goals as part of a school retrofit project. When undertaking energy efficiency and other facility upgrades, early consideration of IAQ issues can help schools avoid unintended, negative consequences and reap the twin benefits of energy savings and a healthier, more productive school environment.

State laws, regulations, and guidance can facilitate the integration of IAQ and energy efficiency goals. This report discusses three areas of potential policy development: state funding for school facility upgrades, energy savings performance contracting, and regulation of indoor pollutants during renovation. While these are not the only policy areas ripe for consideration, the examples described throughout the report reflect a variety of strategies for maximizing the health benefits of energy retrofits and other school facility upgrades.

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