Summer is coming to an end. For millions of kids across America, that means it’s time to start thinking about school. When you think of school, what do you remember? Maybe you remember your friends, your favorite teachers, or your favorite subjects. Or do you think mold is growing on your desk, that excessive heat closes your school and poor ventilation incubates the spread of viruses like Covid-19? The latter is the reality for hundreds of Connecticut children.
In August 2021, teachers at Fair Haven School in New Haven prepared for the school year scraping mold remove the furniture from their classrooms. They did this to combat problems caused by broken heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
In New Haven, mold in a preschool room at the Mauro Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School. New Haven Independent Photo.
Mold in New Haven classrooms is just one part of a much larger problem facing Connecticut schools. Connecticut Department of Administrative Services School Facilities Summary Report Survey Found that 53% of schools use air conditioning systems and boilers that have already exceeded the expected useful life of the equipment. Inadequate air conditioning systems increase the prevalence of hazardous substances such as mold and viruses in the air.
Every child has the right to an accessible and quality education. Part of that is having a safe place to learn. Poor indoor air quality violates this right by creating an unsafe school environment.
In the last two sessions of the state legislature, lawmakers proposed A law that improves indoor air quality in public school classrooms, a bill that would set school temperature and humidity limits while providing funding for the installation and maintenance of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Unfortunately, this bill has failed both times.
Former UN special rapporteur on the right to education, Katarina Tomaševski, created a four-pronged guide to understanding the right to education in practice. Two of these, availability and acceptability, point directly to school infrastructure and safety as important features in making sense of the right to education. Education must be available, meaning there is adequate infrastructure and teachers are available to support teaching. Likewise, education must be acceptable: schools must be a safe space for all children.
So when a lack of adequate air conditioning systems creates an environment that causes teachers to miss school, children to face respiratory illnesses, and schools to close due to extreme heat, it is clear that children are not having their right to education fully respected.
In 2019, mold conditions at Westhill High School, a school in Stamford, were so damaging that educator Ruth-Terry Walden was ordered by her doctor to stay home until she could recover. damaged While Walden noted that the problem improved in the fall, he said it was “far from completely resolved.”
Black mold grows behind the ceiling at Westover Magnet Elementary School in Stamford. The school closed last year due to mold.
Connecticut Education Association
Not only is teacher health put at risk, but teachers are forced to put in extra work to ensure their students can do something as basic as breathe safely. The mold incident in New Haven was result of a combination of humid air and an air conditioning system that had “[aged] to the point that they are difficult to maintain” caused the mold infestation.
Fair Haven isn’t the only school that hasn’t fixed its failing systems. In Connecticut, 31% of school districts do not have reasonable funding to repair and replace such equipment. Additionally, 39% of districts have not approved sufficient funding to carry out an IAQ program in each annual board budget and municipal allocation.
The National Meteorological Service identifies a heat index of 90°F or higher as a significant health risk. When subjected to these temperatures, children are particularly susceptible to dehydration and heat-related illnesses. Don Williams, executive director of the Connecticut Education Association, says temperatures in school buildings currently exceed 90°F, sometimes exceeding 100°F. Such high temperatures have led to several school districts in Connecticut Close and dismiss students early. After experiencing several HVAC failures, Guilford Public Schools decided to close, unable to handle the high heat.
There are indoor air temperature regulations in Connecticut, for a dog kennels, not schools. Commercial kennels must “minimize odor, ammonia levels, risk of disease transmission and unnecessary stress” and provide air conditioning systems capable of maintaining temperatures between 55°F and 80°F. Why can children endure unacceptable conditions for animals?
Reentering and passing the Action to improve indoor air quality in public school classrooms in the upcoming legislative session would be a crucial step in protecting the availability and accessibility of education in Connecticut and, in turn, the health and human rights of Connecticut schoolchildren.
In addition, ongoing maintenance of HVAC systems is actually the most cost-effective option compared to simply letting the equipment break down. Without proper care to maintain HVAC systems, buildings could reach the point of requiring demolition. When students miss class and teachers have to stop working, more time and effort must be spent hiring substitutes and catching up. Increasing these ventilation rates increases energy and capital costs, but the net annual cost ends up being less than 0.1% of typical public primary and secondary education spending in the country – a small price to pay for the health and education of Connecticut students.
Some may argue that funding issues mean that only poor districts fail to provide safe environments for their students, but it is crucial to realize that indoor air quality issues affect districts of all economic backgrounds. Comparing Connecticut mill levies with data from school facilities survey responses, we find little or no relationship between each district’s mill levies and whether an indoor air quality program is sufficiently funded This can be seen in Hartford, where the millage rate is higher, but its schools do not have enough approved funding to carry out an indoor air quality program.
Parents should be able to trust that the air their children breathe every day in schools will not put them at risk. Teachers should not be forced to remove avoidable mold from furniture. This is a problem that can and must be solved. It’s time to make classroom air protection a law to ensure that Connecticut’s youth’s right to education is fully respected.
Maya Feron, Christine Lee, Brooke Mahany and Shelby Parker are high school seniors at Wellington High School, Phillips Academy, Onslow Early College and Dalton McMichael High School, respectively. All four participate in the Young Scholars Senior Summit program at the University of Connecticut.