Ten Actions for Clean Air Where Children Learn

1Bring quiet, classroom-sized air cleaners into classrooms, starting where the need is greatest

These are unobtrusive HEPA units, sized to the room and quiet enough to run all day without disturbing teaching. They cost about $1,000 per classroom, last 10 to 20 years, and come to roughly $5 to $10 per student per year including filters and labor.

Most districts and networks phase them in, and the right starting point depends on local conditions. Factors worth weighing together include:

• Outdoor air: nearness to highways, bus depots, ports and industrial sites, and local PM2.5 levels, including how often bad-air days occur.
• Student health: asthma rates and other health indicators in the school community.
• Buildings: age, condition, and whether the school has mechanical ventilation.
• Long-term plans: the facilities master plan, which can show where classroom units fill a gap before major HVAC work and where they complement upgrades already planned.

2Get full value from the HVAC systems you already have

Many classrooms get less fresh air than their systems were built to deliver, often because of stuck dampers, disabled controls or fans set to cycle off. A system check can find these problems, and an engineer can confirm which systems can take higher-grade MERV-13 filters. Running fresh air at design levels whenever students are in the building, starting before they arrive, and retesting on a regular schedule help keep the gains in place.

3Cut pollution at the school gate

Children also breathe outdoor air at drop-off, at recess and on the bus. Cities and districts have several options for cutting pollution around schools: enforcing no-idling rules for buses, delivery trucks and parent cars; moving the first electric buses onto routes that serve the most-exposed schools; and siting new schools away from highways and freight corridors where possible, with strong filtration where a site can’t move. These steps vary in complexity and cost, and they reach children outside the classroom.

4Put a monitor in every classroom and publish the readings

Monitors make classroom air visible, so staff can find problems and families can see the air their children breathe. They show which rooms need attention, catch units that have been switched off, and let parents check their child’s classroom, which helps keep a program funded after the people who started it move on. Classroom monitors cost $150 to $350 each. Units that measure PM2.5 and CO₂, with data the district can export and own, cover the essentials.

5Connect every reading to a response

Readings only help if someone acts on them. A response plan sets action levels and decides in advance what happens when a room crosses one: who is notified, who fixes it, and by when. Tracking whether devices are running, alongside what they read, also builds a record that can rank repair and capital requests and give district or network leadership a regular picture of progress.

6Write the bad-air-day plan before you need it

Smoke days and outbreaks come with little warning, and decisions made ahead of time are easier to carry out. A plan can set each building’s HVAC settings for smoke days (usually less outdoor air and the best filters the system can take), the air quality levels at which recess and PE move indoors, messages to families, and when classroom units run on high, accepting more noise for a few days. Schools with clean air in every room can also serve as clean-air centers for the neighborhood on weekends and during breaks.

7Adopt a written clean-air standard for every classroom

A written standard gives everyone the same target, and it outlasts changes in leadership and budgets. It can be adopted as school or network board policy, ideally with a matching city council resolution, with targets for both the equipment and the air.

Noise belongs in the standard rather than a footnote. It is the most common reason pandemic-era units failed: they were loud, teachers turned them down or off, and the air went back to what it was.

8Make the standard binding on everything you buy and build

Writing the standard into purchasing and building rules means each new unit and project meets it without a fresh decision. The Model RFP we developed with the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council turns the standard into bid language a district can issue largely as written. It scores bids on independently tested clean air delivery rather than manufacturer claims, and requires UL 507 safety listing. The same requirements can go into design standards for new construction, major renovations and HVAC replacements.

9Name an owner and fund maintenance in the operating budget

Many pandemic-era programs stalled after the purchase. Units bought with one-time money had no maintenance budget, so filters went unchanged and units were switched off. Programs that last tend to have one person in facilities accountable for keeping units running, filter replacement in the annual budget (about $75 to $150 in parts and $25 to $100 in labor per classroom each time), the work written into custodial job descriptions and, where relevant, labor agreements, and a simple explanation for teachers of what the unit does and why it should stay on.

10Pay for it from durable sources

Clean air lasts when it is paid for like other building systems rather than with one-time grants. Equipment that lasts 10 to 20 years fits naturally in capital plans and facilities bonds. Cities can share costs through health budgets, state school facilities funds can help where the state allows, and buying with neighboring districts or through cooperative contracts can lower prices. Philanthropy can help most as a first investment or a match that brings in public money.