NYS School Environmental Health Program: Additional Resources
Trainings
- Indoor Air Quality in Schools Master Class Webinar Series. This web-based training from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contains ten, one-hour webinars designed to help school staff start, improve, or sustain an indoor air quality management program.
- Creating Healthy Indoor Environments in Schools: The Knowledge Network and Actions You Need. Discover how to start, improve and sustain an indoor air quality (IAQ) management program.
- Making the Case for Environmental Health, Academic Performance and High-Performing Facilities. Learn how to take action to implement IAQ management plans that address health, academic performance and facility efficiency.
- Fresh Air: Optimal HVAC Management for Improved Health. Learn the importance of optimal HVAC design, operation and maintenance in providing clean and healthy air in schools.
- Mold and Moisture: Double Trouble for Schools. Discover effective strategies for responding quickly to moisture problems and learn about proper mold remediation and clean-up practices in schools.
- Indoor Air Quality Plus Energy Efficiency: A Formula for Saving Money While Protecting Your School's Indoor Environment. Find out how to explain the connection between IAQ and energy efficiency and the importance of properly integrating the two for optimal occupant health and building performance.
- Smart, Sensible and Sustainable Pest Management in Your School. Learn more about pest management and its effect on asthma and health outcomes and how to incorporate Integrated Pest Management in your school’s IAQ management plan.
- IAQ and Health: Managing Asthma for Improved Health and Academic Outcomes. Understand how to recognize and address indoor environmental asthma triggers and understand the relationship between asthma and environmental triggers in schools.
- Clean Bill of Health: How Effective Cleaning and Maintenance Can Improve Health Outcomes in Your School. Learn the beneficial effects of proper cleaning, as well as how to establish a cleaning and maintenance plan in your school.
- Living in a Material World: Selecting the Right Materials to Improve IAQ in Schools. How to identify the right types of materials to be used in schools.
- Pollution Solution: How to Create IAQ Policies, Plans and Practices to Control Pollutant Sources in Your School District. Learn how to prevent IAQ issues, how to conduct a school walkthrough and how to create a plan for hazardous materials.
- Indoor Air Quality Knowledge-to-Action Webinar Series. This web-based training from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) translates the knowledge learned from the Master Class Webinar Series into actions. Check out five select one-hour long webinars from the site below:
- Healthy Schools, Healthy Students: Taking Action to Improve IAQ in Your School District. Learn how to successfully implement the Tools for Schools framework and how to use the IAQ mobile app.
- Know the Drill for Healthy IAQ: Training School Staff and Occupants to Reduce Indoor Asthma Triggers. View best practices from a school district that has implemented the Tools for Schools framework and learn how to train your staff to address the environmental triggers in a school.
- Better Together: Gaining Buy-In for Optimal Ventilation. Learn how to gain buy-in from stakeholders by successfully communicating the link between improved academic performance and IAQ problems, and learn how to improve ventilation and save energy.
- Mold, Moisture and Money: How to Secure Funding to Address and Prevent IAQ Issues. Learn how to implement critical actions to prevent mold and moisture problems.
- Using Data to Drive Buy-In and Funding to Reduce Asthma Triggers: The Value Proposition of School IAQ Management. Learn how to evaluate an IAQ and asthma management program and use the evaluation to develop buy-in strategies to improve compliance with and funding of these programs.
- Green Cleaning Program. Register for online training documents from this NYS program, which contain information and guidelines to help practice green cleaning.
- Green Classroom Professional Certificate. A certificate program through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for PK-12 educators and school staff. Please contact us to check for availability of taking this training for free.
- Introduction to Mold and Mold Remediation. Online mold course on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website discussing useful methods and techniques for mold prevention and mold remediation.
- Project Learning Tree. A multi-disciplinary environmental education program through the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for educators and students in Pre-K through Grade 12.
- Workplace Health and Safety Webinars. from New York State United Teachers (NYSUT).
- Webinars about Integrated Pest Management in Schools. This US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) webinar series focuses on educational and practical strategies for implementing IPM in schools.
- Sensible Steps to Healthier School Environments. A guide from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on common issues in school environmental health, sensible steps to take, and an assessment for those taking the training.
- Training for School Bus Drivers. Reducing School Bus Idling- Requirement and Notice Materials for School Districts. A PowerPoint presentation from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) designed to teach about laws, regulations, and adverse effects of diesel exhaust and bus idling.
- Energy Savings Plus Health: Indoor Air Quality Guidelines for School Building Upgrades. This 1.5-hour training will help you understand how to protect IAQ while increasing energy efficiency.
- Energy Efficiency Plus Indoor Air Quality: Strategies for Improving Health and Reducing Energy Costs in Your School. This one-hour training on YouTube, created by the US Environmental Protection agency (EPA), will help you understand the critical connection between IAQ and energy efficiency and the importance of properly integrating the two for optimal occupant health and building performance.
- Lead Testing in School Drinking Water. This PowerPoint training from the NYSDOH gives information on the regulations in Subpart 67-4 requiring all NYS public schools to test all potable water outlets for lead contamination, and to take responsive actions.
Award & Recognition Programs
- New York State Green Ribbon Schools. Apply to receive state and/or national recognition for taking a comprehensive approach to greening your school.
- New York State Environmental Excellence Awards. Annual recognition of outstanding innovative and sustainable projects or programs and unique partnerships that are improving and protecting New York State's environmental resources and contributing to a stronger economy.
- Integrated Pest Management Star Certificate Program for Schools. Schools, childcare and school-age child education and recreation programs may apply for IPM STAR Certification from the IPM Institute of America.
- New York State School Boards Association Awards for Innovative Change within Schools. Awards for school boards and programs that make a difference in schools.
Success Stories
New York State Green Ribbon Schools Awards
- 2018 Awardees. Highlights from this school’s performance can be found under "New York" in this document.
- Park Avenue Elementary School, Warwick
- Warwick Valley High School, Warwick
- 2016 Awardee. Highlights from this school’s performance can be found under "New York" in this document.
- Schuylerville Elementary School, Schuylerville
- 2014 Awardee. Highlights from this school's performance can be found under "New York" in this document.
- Anne Hutchinson Elementary School, Eastchester.
- 2013 Awardees. Highlights from these schools' performances can be found under "New York" in this document.
- Hubert H Humphrey PS 057, Staten Island
- Crompond School, Yorktown
- Rye Country Day School, Rye
- 2012 Awardees. Highlights from these awardees can be found under "New York" in this document.
- Hampton Bays Middle School, Hampton Bays
- Sleepy Hollow Middle School, Sleepy Hollow
- Bethlehem Central Middle School, Delmar
Case Studies
- IAQ Tools for Schools Case Studies. Case studies showing schools that have implemented the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit successfully.
Research
- New York State Specific Literature
- Jones, R., Recer, G. M., Hwang, S. A., Lin, S. (2011). Association between indoor mold and asthma among children in Buffalo, New York. Indoor Air, 21: 156-164. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.2010.00692.x.
- Kielb, C., Lin, S., Hwang, S. (2007). Asthma prevalence, management, and education in New York State elementary schools: A survey of school nurses. The Journal of School Nursing, 23(5): 267-275. doi: 10.1177/10598405070230050501.
- Kielb, C., Lin, S., Muscatiello, N., Hord, W., Rogers-Harrington, J. and Healy, J. (2014). Building-related health symptoms and classroom indoor air quality: A survey of school teachers in New York State. Indoor Air, doi: 10.1111/ina.12154.
- Loukmas H., Boese S., McCoy M. (2007). Unwanted exposure: Preventing environmental threats to the health of New York State's children. Children's Environmental Health Partnership of New York State.
- Muscatiello, N., McCarthy, A., Kielb, C., Hsu, W.-H., Hwang, S.-A. & Lin, S. (2015). Classroom conditions and CO2 concentrations and teacher health symptom reporting in 10 New York State Schools. Indoor Air, 25: 157–167. doi: 10.1111/ina.12136.
- Simons, E., Hwang, S.-A., Fitzgerald, Kielb, C., & Lin, S. (2010). The impact of school building conditions on student absenteeism in Upstate New York. Am J Public Health, 100(9): 1679-1686. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.165324.
- National Research
- Daisey, J.M., Angell, W.J., and Apte, M.G. (2003). Indoor air quality, ventilation and health symptoms in schools: An analysis of existing information. Indoor Air, 13(1):53-64.
- Fox, A., Harley, W., Feigley, C., Salzberg, D., Sebastian, A., and Larsson L. (2003). Increased levels of bacterial markers and CO2 in occupied school rooms. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 5, 246-252.
- Godwin, C. and Batterman, S. (2007). Indoor air quality in Michigan schools. Indoor Air, 17, 109-121.
- Jones S. H., Smith A. M., Wheeler L. S., and McManus T. (2010). School policies and practices that improve indoor air quality. Journal of School Health, 80(6): 280-286.
- Kats, G. (2006). Greening America's schools: Costs and benefits. A Capital E Report. Capital E. Washington, D.C.
- Mendel, M.J. and Heath, G.A. (2005). Do indoor pollutants and thermal conditions in schools influence student performance? A critical review of the literature. Indoor Air, 15, 27-52.
- Ramachandran, G., Adgate, J.L., Banerjee, S., Church, T.R., Jones, D., Fredrickson, A., and Sexton, K. (2005). Indoor air quality in two urban elementary schools – Measurements of airborne fungi, carpet allergens, CO2, temperature, and relative humidity. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2, 553-566.
- Sundell, J., Levin, H., Nazaroff, W.W., Cain, W.S., Fisk, W.J., Grimsrud, D.T., Gyntelberg, F., Li, Y., Persily, A.K., Pickering, A.C., Samet, J.M., Spengler, J.D., Taylor, S.T., and Weschler, C.J. (2011). Ventilation rates and health: multidisciplinary review of the scientific literature. Indoor Air, 21, 191-204.
- Wakefield J. (2002). Learning the hard way: The poor environment of America's schools. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110, A298-A305.
Toolkits
- Idle Free Schools Toolkit. A breakdown by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of why it is bad to idle vehicles and ideas for idling reduction campaigns at your school.
- Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Action Kit.Toolkit from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about how to carry out a practical plan to improve indoor air problems at little- or no-cost using straightforward activities and in-house staff.
- Toolkit for Safe Chemical Management in K-12 Schools. Toolkit from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that helps schools start chemical management programs.
- 3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Toolkit. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Training, Testing, Taking Action (3Ts) Full Toolkit for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools and Child Care Facilities.
- Asthma Awareness Toolkit. Learn more from the CDC about how to raise awareness for asthma.
- Asthma-Friendly Schools Initiative Toolkit. This toolkit from the American Lung Association demonstrates a comprehensive approach to asthma management in schools.
- Back to School with Asthma Toolkit. Here school staff can find easy ways from the American Lung Association to help students with asthma adjust back to school and can help prepare the school for the return of students.
- School IAQ Assessment Mobile App. A mobile guide from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist in the completion of a school walkthrough, submit assessment checklists, and help track and prioritize IAQ-related follow-up actions.
Checklists
- Administrative Staff Checklist.
- Building and Grounds Maintenance Checklist.
- Food Service Checklist.
- Health Officer/School Nurse Checklist.
- IAQ Management Checklist.
- Integrated Pest Management Checklist.
- Renovation and Repairs Checklist.
- School Official's Checklist.
- Teacher's Classroom Checklist.
- Ventilation Checklist.
- Walkthrough Inspection Checklist.
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