Ensure Safe and Healthy Workplaces
Health and safety concerns—mold, lead, violence, exposure to chemicals, poor indoor air quality, and so many more—predated the COVID-19 pandemic, due, in large part, to decades of under-spending on school infrastructure.
In 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that more than a third of tested school districts had elevated lead in their drinking water. A 2020 GAO report determined that more than half of public school districts needed to update or entirely replace components of their physical infrastructure and one-third needed to update their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
The quality of school facilities affects student learning, educator morale, and teacher retention. We must ensure that school buildings and grounds are safe, healthy, and conducive to learning. Hazards, such as lead in drinking water, need to be identified and removed.
The structural integrity of buildings, air quality of indoor spaces, and other infrastructure concerns must be addressed. These facility upgrades should be undertaken in collaboration with educators. Strong labor-management health and safety committees that draw from the breadth and varied experience of educators can be one of the most useful ways school and district leaders can engage with educators on these critical issues.
Comprehensive school health and safety plans on relevant topics—including indoor air quality, infectious diseases, and violence—are important tools to develop and implement.
Solutions must focus on equity, ensuring an analytical framework that will identify how racial and social inequities affect health and safety problems and ensure inequities are addressed.
