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In 2021, the federal government allocated gobs of money for schools — about $122 billion — to deal with the pandemic, with a special emphasis on upgrading outdated infrastructure to improve indoor air quality. But schools have been slow to make upgrades, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s bad news for student health — and academic performance.
As I’ve reported before, over 40 percent of school districts have outdated HVAC systems, leaving about 50 million students to breathe substandard air. Stagnant air can allow pathogens to become concentrated in classrooms as pupils exhale, making it easier to spread and catch viruses. But stuffy air is also linked to poor academic performance, as higher carbon dioxide levels can hamper focus.
Schools have a range of options to improve indoor air. Simply keeping HVAC systems running throughout the day can boost ventilation rates, thereby cutting disease transmission and slightly improving cognitive performance.
But only about half of schools reported maintaining continuous airflow since the pandemic began, according to the CDC’s survey of over 8,000 districts, highlighting ongoing challenges in communicating the importance of ventilation. Only about a third of districts replaced or upgraded their systems, with just 28 percent deploying portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters.
Schools have until September 2024 to spend the $122 billion set aside by the American Rescue Plan, but the CDC report suggests the majority of districts aren’t prioritizing significant upgrades. It can take years of planning to make such changes, and many districts may not be aware of the significant benefits upgrading HVAC systems can provide, or might not have access to contractors who can do the work. One exception is high-poverty districts, which reported the highest rates of HVAC upgrades and classroom HEPA filter use, perhaps because systems in these districts were in greatest need of repair.
(Photo by MChe Lee/Unsplash)
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