Six Recommendations for how school administrators and decisionmakers could use flexible funds available under the American Rescue Plan to provide healthy air in schools.

On May 26, 2021, The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health released a report calling on kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) school administrators to invest in ways to provide healthy air in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, reduce respiratory disease outbreaks, and improve student learning.

The report, School Ventilation: A Vital Tool to Reduce COVID-19 Spread, reviews how improvements in building ventilation can reduce the risks of disease transmission. The report also summarizes ventilation guidelines for K-12 schools and shares results from an analysis finding that ventilation is a cost-effective public health measure.

“Many K-12 schools in the United States do not have good ventilation, which has negative health impacts on health and learning,” wrote the authors. “Improving ventilation systems may give children and school staff healthier indoor air quality now and for decades in the future. This would provide a healthier environment for non-pandemic times and potentially reduce the risks of future infectious disease outbreaks.”

1. Improve school ventilation now by bringing in as much outdoor air as the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system will safely allow and upgrading filtration.

2. Purchase HEPA air filtration units to be placed in classrooms and common occupied spaces.

3. Use only proven technologies for improving indoor air quality: appropriate ventilation, HEPA filtration, or ultraviolet germicidal irradiation. Schools should not use chemical foggers or any “air cleaner” other than filtration and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation.

4. Stop enhanced cleaning, disinfecting, “deep clean” days, and any other expensive and disruptive cleaning. Fomite (surface) transmission is not a major driver of the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

5. Install mechanical ventilation systems where none exist and upgrade those that do not meet current standards.

6. The US government should convene a task force dedicated to school air quality to develop guidance for long-term, sustainable, cost-effective improvements to indoor air quality in schools. This guidance should include accountability measures to assess improvements.