School Facilities and Their Impact on Learning

Indoor Air Quality Design Tools for Schools

Why Indoor Air Quality is Important to Your School

Schools across the country have observed many health-related benefits from implementing the IAQ TfS Action Kit (Read their Case Studies):

Improvements in comfort levels and a decrease in IAQ-related complaints
(King-Murphy Elementary School, Colorado)
A reduction in IAQ complaints from one per month to three per year since 1997
(Shamona Creek Elementary School, Pennsylvania)
A dramatic decrease in absenteeism, fewer reported bronchitis cases reported by school staff, an increase in comfort, and a 25-percent reduction in the number of visits to the school nurse within the first 5 months of implementing the Action Kit
(Little Harbour School, New Hampshire)
A 50-percent reduction in visits to the nurse’s office for the use of asthma inhalers
(G.W. Carver Elementary School, California)
A reduction from 75 complaints related to health and faulty equipment in 1994 to fewer than 15 in 1999
(Okaloosa County School District, Florida)

IAQ problems affect building occupants’ attendance, comfort, and performance.

Decreased School Absenteeism
Increased Student Performance
Related Resources

Decreased School Absenteeism

School funding is often directly linked to attendance, most often the average daily attendance rate. If a school experiences high absenteeism rates, future funding could be adversely affected. IAQ problems can result in absences because of respiratory infections, allergic diseases from biological contaminants, or irritant reactions to chemicals used in virtually every part of the school. Some conditions in the school environment are closely associated with the incidence of sick building syndrome and asthma symptoms. Asthma-related illness is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism.

Award Winner Testimonial

Little Harbour School in New Hampshire noticed a dramatic decrease in absenteeism within the first five months of implementing the IAQ Tools for Schools Program:

“We saw a significant decrease in absenteeism rates of children, especially for a child with severe asthma, since we completed the IAQ upgrades.”

Priscilla Santiago,School Nurse

If schools have poor IAQ, students, teachers, and staff may miss more school days and experience decreased performance. Poor IAQ and related problems that can lead to school absences include:

Asthma - Asthma-related illness is a primary cause of school absenteeism, accounting for 14.7 million missed school days per year. Asthma affects one out of every 13 school-aged children. IAQ problems in schools -- the presence of mold, dust mites, cockroaches, pet dander, and certain chemicals -- can trigger asthma attacks.
Moisture - Moisture problems in schools contribute to mold and pest problems, which can affect allergic individuals and people with asthma.
Nitrogen Dioxide - Nitrogen dioxide has been associated with increased respiratory symptoms and student absences, even at levels within existing health standards. Nitrogen dioxide is a byproduct of combustion sources, such as unvented gas and kerosene heaters, pottery kilns, and woodstoves. Infiltration of vehicle exhaust is another contributor to nitrogen dioxide levels.

Schools may increase their attendance rates by managing IAQ. Learn more about Managing Asthma in Schools.

Increased Student Performance

How Does Indoor Air Quality Affect Students’ Learning?

Exposure to indoor pollutants and inadequate management of indoor temperature and relative humidity can affect student, teacher, and staff health and performance.

Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can cause illnesses requiring school absences and can cause acute health symptoms that decrease performance while at school
Statistics demonstrate that poor IAQ can reduce a person’s ability to perform specific mental tasks requiring concentration, calculation, or memory
Evidence suggests that individuals who experience two symptoms of discomfort perceive a reduction in their own performance. That perception increases as the number of symptoms increases, averaging a three percent loss in performance with three symptoms, and an 8 percent loss with five symptoms
Research suggests that students cannot concentrate as well, and report more health symptoms, in classrooms with low ventilation rates. Low ventilation rates can be a sign of high indoor pollutant levels because adequate ventilation is required to remove pollutants from indoor environments
In other studies, people experienced decreased performance in arithmetic, logical reasoning, memory, and creative thinking tasks when exposed to a pollutant source. They also reported more headaches during tasks requiring concentration, suggesting that part of the effect on performance is from pollution-related adverse health symptoms

To learn more about the data and studies cited above, download the Student Performance Fact Sheet (PDF, 8 pp, 376KB, About PDF).

Did You Know?

When large numbers of students and staff experience signs of discomfort related to the air inside their school, teaching and learning performance decrease over time.

Measured Effects of Temperature and Humidity

Moderate changes in room temperature, even within the comfort zone, appear to affect students’ abilities to perform mental tasks requiring concentration, such as addition, multiplication, and sentence comprehension. In general, the evidence strongly supports the need to avoid extreme conditions and to provide for as much individual temperature control as possible.

Indoor Air Can Affect Performance

Students do not perform as well when they are sick or absent from school. In addition, students and staff with asthma or other sensitivities may have reduced performance when exposed to environmental factors that trigger their asthma (learn more about common environmental asthma triggers found in schools at Managing Asthma in Schools).

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Related Resources

Collaborative of High Performance Schools 2006 Best Practices Manual

Appendix A of the Collaborative of High Performance Schools, 2006 edition, Best Practices Manual, Volume 1 contains four case studies: Alder Creek Middle School, Georgina Blach Intermediate School, Cahuenga New Elementary School, and Cesar Chavez Education Center. Download the PDF file of Volume 1 of the manual at www.chps.net/manual/documents/BPM_2006_Edition/CHPS_I_2006.pdf You can see all of the CHPS resources at www.chps.net/manual/index.htm

Greening America's Schools -- Costs and Benefits

This report, published in 2006 by Capital E, an energy consulting firm, and sponsored by several organizations including the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Lung Association, and the Federation of American Scientists, is intended to answer this fundamental question: how much more do green schools cost, and is greening schools cost effective? The conclusion: Greening school design provides an extraordinarily cost-effective way to enhance student learning. Download the PDF file at http://www.cap-e.com/ewebeditpro/items/O59F9819.pdf