As temperatures plummet across America, many schools will struggle to keep students and teachers comfortable and healthy as well as ventilating classrooms. Children and teachers spend more than six hours a day in classrooms during the school year, often in buildings that are decades old and have inadequate heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC, systems.
The fall of 2022 marks the start of the fourth school year hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted the importance of indoor air quality in schools. Ideally, all school buildings should have adequate ventilation, filtered air in each classroom, and open windows. Sadly, this is not the case and has resulted in poor indoor air quality in many schools. This is particularly problematic in view of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s August 2022 COVID-19 guidance for schools, which stipulates other measures to limit transmission, such as masking, testing and quarantining.
In addition to reducing COVID-19 transmission, indoor air quality also matters to student academic performance. This is particularly important given the learning loss many children experienced in the first two years of the pandemic. Hot, crowded classrooms make learning difficult for students. So do cold classrooms. Our research focused on the indoor environment and health, which has received more attention during the pandemic, as most COVID-19 transmission occurs through shared air indoors. There is substantial evidence that smart investments in school buildings can reduce infectious disease transmission, as well as improve learning and well-being for students, teachers and administrators.
Many school districts have limited resources and buildings in poor condition. Where should they start? Here are some of the priorities we look to for immediate action and long-term investments that can truly transform the school experience. Since the spring of 2020, schools have invested millions of dollars in interventions to reduce COVID-19 transmission, including high-efficiency, free-standing commercial filter units and ventilation upgrades. These actions are a drop in the bucket, given the structural reforms needed in many schools, especially in less wealthy school districts, but they are an important start. And their benefits outweigh those of COVID-19, so they shouldn’t be discarded.
For example, high-efficiency filters including filters rated MERV-13 for commercial units, DIY boxes or HVAC systems capture flu and common cold viruses as well as SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. They also clean the air of pollen particles, mold spores, and pollution from car exhaust and industrial operations. And in areas where wildfires are common, filters reduce the concentration of smoke particles inside buildings. Schools with mechanical ventilation are able to increase the amount of filtered fresh air that these systems draw indoors. It dilutes all indoor pollutants. For children and school workers, especially those with asthma, allergies, and sensitivities, this can mean fewer missed days of school, less medication, and fewer asthma attacks and later hospital visits.
Better ventilation can actually enhance learning and attention. A 2010 study showed that children performed better on standardized tests when the ventilation rate was higher. Poor ventilation can affect teachers, too: A 2016 study found that office workers’ cognitive performance improved when they were exposed to reduced levels of carbon dioxide, a marker of better ventilation. And a 2018 analysis showed that students’ performance in school exams declined on hot days, especially in schools without air-conditioning.
If you’ve ever felt that it’s hard to concentrate in a hot, stuffy room, science backs you up. For now, we recommend that schools that have improved should maintain increased ventilation rates with maximum fresh air, continue to use high-efficiency filters in their HVAC systems and allow free-to-use in classrooms. Standing filter should be kept on. Schools that have not invested in these phases should do so, with states providing funds to low-resource districts as needed. The cost of these steps is modest compared to the benefits they provide for health and learning.
Families and employees who want to improve conditions in their schools should focus on providing better ventilation and filtration in every classroom, including making DIY boxes if necessary. These near-term solutions can help, but the best way to ensure that schools provide healthy conditions for learning is by investing in healthy buildings.
Funds are currently available for this. All US states have received millions of dollars from the US Rescue Plan enacted in 2021 to address the impact of COVID-19, including elementary and secondary school emergency relief, or ESSER, funds. Department education Has disbursed USD 122 billion to help schools stop the spread of COVID-19 and operate safely.
School districts have used this money to cover a variety of needs, including staffing, educational support, and mental health, but much of it is still available. And only a few states have invested in HVAC. According to an independent Brookings Institution review, less than 5 percent of the ESSER Fund’s most recent round of funding was spent during the first quarter of 2022.
Another USD 3 billion was authorized in the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act for Environment and Climate Justice Block grants. These can be used to upgrade buildings and ventilation systems to reduce indoor air pollution. Given widespread perceptions that the pandemic is over and many other challenges are being faced, school districts may be tempted to put indoor aerial interventions on the back burner. But in our view, other educational interventions will be less effective if children are frequently absent due to illness or unable to concentrate in the classroom.
We believe it is important for families and employees to understand the benefits that healthy indoor learning environments provide to everyone who spends time in school buildings, and to encourage states and school districts to use healthy school buildings. for investing in HVAC improvements. (Conversation).
read all latest education news And today’s fresh news Here