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Healthy School Environments
More
than 53 million children and almost 3 million adults spend a significant portion
of their days in approximately 112,000 public and private school buildings, many
of which are old and inadequately maintained, and which often contain environmental
conditions that inhibit learning and pose increased risks to the health of children
and staff. The Healthy School Environments web page is intended to serve as a
portal to on-line resources to help facility managers, school administrators,
architects, design engineers, school nurses, parents, teachers and staff address
environmental health issues in schools. While the information is primarily intended
to help improve the environment of school facilities, educational resources for
students and teachers can also be found through the Healthy
School Environments portal. The resources identified have been developed by
EPA, other Federal agencies, States, local governments and non-governmental organizations.
Visitors can browse resources by topic or by geographic area, or search all resources
by entering specific keywords into the search box at the top of each page.
EPA HealthySEAT Software Now Available!
The Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEAT V.1.0) is now available for download. HealthySEAT brings together all of EPA's regulatory and voluntary programs for schools into a single, free software tool that public, private, and tribal school systems can use, if they wish, to establish and manage comprehensive school facility assessment programs. HealthySEAT is designed to be customized by states and school systems to reflect their own priorities and needs. The software will make it easier for school systems to access and implement EPA programs as well as track the status of facility conditions across all of their schools. EPA has scheduled three webcasts (Jan. 26, Feb. 15, Mar. 2) to help acquaint states, school systems, and others with the capabilities and features of HealthySEAT. To sign up for one of the free webcasts, visit the HealthySEAT Web site.Children's Environmental Health Ambassador Program
Every day millions of parents send their children to school unaware of the hidden environmental dangers that their children may be exposed to in their classrooms and on the school grounds. Some school districts may not be fully aware of the environmental health risks children face and the available solutions to these problems. The environmental contaminants in the schools impact the health and productivity of one of our most valuable natural resources: our children and the teachers responsible for developing their intellect. The Region 8 Children's Environmental Health (CEH) Ambassador Program was created in October 2001 (Children's Health Month) to encourage EPA Regional Employees to volunteer by bringing information to their communities about the environmental health risks that our children face and provide them with available solutions to these problems.Our Region has over 700 employees who live in almost every neighborhood of the Denver/Metro area. Many are parents or grandparents, have nieces or nephews, or know kids in their neighborhoods. Many are involved in volunteer organizations involving children. Because they are more familiar with the way the school is organized, adult volunteers are often better able to reach out to the school personnel with specific information about EPA programs which can prove helpful to protect children's health. Protecting children's environmental health in the schools can begin at the grass roots level by educating and engaging all the right people (i.e., school principal, facilities coordinator, teachers, parents, custodians, school nurse, purchasing agent, PTA, etc.). The CEH Ambassadors are required to take a 2-hr training course on children's environmental health and EPA's regulatory and voluntary programs related to protecting children's health in schools. Once trained, the Ambassadors visit schools to give a 30-minute presentation on children's environmental health. They become a resource to their school by helping bring together the right school representatives and the appropriate EPA program staff. To date, 20 regional employees have volunteered to participate in the program.
