"Students and school staff have the right to a clean, well-ventilated and well-maintained school environment, free of biological, chemical, physical or structural conditions or activities that harm them or have the potential to cause illness or injury.
Furthermore, no school official should force or coerce a child's or employee's attendance or occupancy where:
1) there are risks to health and safety (as perceived by the student, employee or parent) such as inadequate ventilation, poor sanitation, poor hygiene, air contaminants, leaks, dampness, or moisture intrusion, or unsafe equipment or supplies; or
2) the child, employee or other occupant believes his or her symptoms are related to a location or activity.
Furthermore, all employees of state and local education agencies share the duty to safeguard all students and employees from health-related hazards and disruption to their education or employment.
STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLESJust as violence or fear of violence interferes with a child's safety, sense of security at school and learning, school health hazards are barriers to learning and attendance. These barriers to health and security make the school inaccessible and unusable and therefore, while endangering all students, discriminate against health-impaired students and employees.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONAll states should include, in the definition of "persistently dangerous schools," the following precautions, standards, school official responsibilities, and parent and employee rights as defined herein.
School officials fulfill their duty to protect students and employees from illness, injury and all health-related barriers to their education or employment, by
1) Precautionary Action: designing and maintaining a standard for all facility conditions and operations and in all educational locations and activities that protect all occupants, but especially health-impaired and other vulnerable students, from illness, injury or death
2) Secondary Action: responding immediately to any report, verbal or written, of conditions or activities that have the potential to cause or exacerbate any child's or adult's illness, injury, or death,
2a) Simultaneously: by immediately taking children and adults out of harm's way to a safe location, and
2b) Immediately stopping and correcting the conditions or activities, before the area is re-occupied.
2c) Notification: As the school nurse or principal does for incidents of head lice or scabies, chickenpox, strep throat, head injury, etc., the school nurse or school principal will notify all parents in writing of an exposure incident, unsafe condition or activity, or hazard, the observed or potential symptoms of the exposure, any signs or symptoms to watch for, the actions taken by specified school personnel, and recommendations for follow up.
2d) Respecting the standard of the "prudent parent," by providing, on request, alternative instruction and/or placement in an equal (and medically appropriate, per parent/child's physician) educational program, at the expense of the local school agency (LEA), when a parent or a child's physician judges that a condition or activity in the school has the potential to cause or has caused illness, injury or disruption of learning.
2e) Reimbursing a parent or group of parents for any out-of-pocket expenses they incur for medical or educational expenses, due to a school official's resistance or failure to implement the precautions necessary to protect and safeguard a child's health and education.
3) The school must keep logs of health complaints and records of all health, safety and structural inspections, facility evaluations and air testing results, maintenance activities and purchasing records, occupancy restrictions, and make them available to parents, employees, and the public, at all times at no charge (i.e. on the school or district website.)
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BACKGROUND READING A Case Study of Environmental, Health & Safety Issues Involving The Burlington (Ma) Public School System. "Tips, suggestions, and resources for investigating and resolving EHS issues in Schools" prepared by Todd H. Dresser, Environmental Engineer, formerly of the Burlington Board of Health, Burlington, Massachusetts 01803
Environmental Health and Safety Problems Reported in Massachusetts' Public Schools by Massachusetts Agencies, February 2006.
Prioritization of 31 Criteria For School Building Adequacy. Glen I. Earthman, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0302
Title 9, Part E, SEC. 9532. UNSAFE SCHOOL CHOICE OPTIONS
(a) UNSAFE SCHOOL CHOICE POLICY- Each State receiving funds under this Act shall establish and implement a statewide policy requiring that a student attending a persistently dangerous public elementary school or secondary school, as determined by the State in consultation with a representative sample of local educational agencies, or who becomes a victim of a violent criminal offense, as determined by State law, while in or on the grounds of a public elementary school or secondary school that the student attends, be allowed to attend a safe public elementary school or secondary school within the local educational agency, including a public charter school.
(b) CERTIFICATION- As a condition of receiving funds under this Act, a State shall certify in writing to the Secretary that the State is in compliance with this section.
Please send comments, questions and/or an endorsement to Ellie Goldberg at
healthykids@rcn.com
