Many factors can affect your child’s health and how well they perform in school. Did you know indoor air quality is one of them?¹ But most public schools in the U.S. have polluted indoor air, exposing children and staff to asthma triggers.

This may result in asthma that is hard to control, poor school performance, and missed school and workdays.

Why is indoor air quality such an issue in schools? There are a few reasons.

Why Many Schools Have Poor Indoor Air Quality

Several factors can affect a school’s indoor air quality. Some may be obvious. Other factors may seem harmless or minor. But they can all add up as a student is exposed to them throughout their day.

Aging buildings

Around 53% of public school buildings need repairs and updates just to be in good condition.² Schools in low-income areas and schools with higher numbers of Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous children usually have fewer resources and are in poorer condition. This is due to discriminatory funding and districting policies.

Most schools don’t have enough money to update their buildings. Funding to keep up school buildings falls short by about $38 billion each year.³

Allergens, asthma triggers, and irritants

Dust mites, animal dander, pests, and mold are common allergy and asthma triggers found in schools. Add irritants to the list, such as harsh or heavily scented cleaning chemicals, personal care products, pesticides, and fumes from buses idling outside school doors. Respiratory infections, which can trigger asthma symptoms, tend to spread more during school months.

Tobacco use is also a concern in schools. Vaping has become very popular among students. In 2024, more than 1.63 million high school and middle school students claimed to use e-cigarettes.⁴

Poor ventilation

Proper ventilation in schools can help reduce air pollution and the spread of viruses that cause respiratory illnesses, such as the flu and COVID-19. Many schools need to upgrade their HVAC, ventilation, and filtering systems.⁵

Many schools keep windows and doors closed due to safety and security concerns. This reduces air circulation and prevents indoor air from swapping with fresh outdoor air.

Transportation pollution

Air pollution can make asthma symptoms worse. Emissions from cars, buses, and semi-trailers contain tiny particles and gases that pollute the air. When those particles and gases are in the air, they can get into your lungs.

School children can be exposed to pollution while riding the bus to and from school. Most afternoons, buses and cars in the pickup line idle just outside schools. The polluted air also makes its way into the school. If a child attends a school near a major roadway, they are also exposed to vehicle-related pollution throughout the day.

How to Tell If Your Child Is Affected by Indoor Air Quality at School

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), watch for these signs that polluted indoor air is affecting your child’s health:⁵

• Your child complains about asthma or allergy symptoms during certain times of the day or week
• Other students in your child’s classroom or groups have similar issues
• Your child feels better when they leave the school but has symptoms again when they return
• The school has recently been renovated or refurnished
• Your child recently started working with new or different materials or equipment at school
• The school started using new cleaning or pesticide products or practices
• Smoking is allowed in or around the school
• The classroom adopts a new warm-blooded animal (such as a hamster or guinea pig)
  
  

When mold grows in school buildings, it can impact the health of students and staff – especially those with asthma and allergies.  

Watch for these signs of mold exposure:

• Irritation of the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs (in people with or without allergies)
• Allergic reactions (in people with allergies)
  • Sneezing, runny nose, skin rash, red/itchy eyes
• Asthma attacks
  
  

How We Can Improve Indoor Air Quality in Schools

Lack of funding may prevent schools from making major upgrades to their buildings. But there are some steps school staff can make to help improve indoor air quality, such as:

• Don’t allow buses to idle on campus.
• Use unscented and low-VOC cleaning products and methods.
• Don’t use scented candles, scent or essential oil diffusers, or scented personal hygiene products (soaps and lotions).
• Don’t allow warm-blooded pets in classrooms.
• Fix leaks immediately before they have the chance to grow mold.
• Do not use air cleaners with ionizing features or that release ozone.
• Keep humidity between 30 to 50% to reduce dust mites and help prevent mold.
• Use integrated pest management as a way of controlling pests such as cockroaches and mice.
• Do maintenance on central heating and air systems regularly according to manufacturer’s instructions.
• Add fans and vents in areas with poor ventilation.
• Use portable air cleaners with HEPA filters in classrooms if the central HVAC is not sufficient.
  
  

The EPA also offers several resources for school staff who want to learn more about creating healthy indoor school environments.

Without funding, many schools are limited on the steps they can take. On a greater scale, we can all advocate for policies and practices that make schools healthier. In The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America's (AAFA) 2024 Asthma Capitals™ report, we list steps that can help improve asthma outcomes in schools. Stakeholders, such as lawmakers, health care providers, health insurance and drug companies, and people managing asthma, can all work together to make these happen.

• Advocate for policies that support funding for school building improvements and electric school buses.
• Support programs that help prevent or stop teens and children from smoking and vaping.
• Ensure every school has a nurse.
• Encourage asthma management plans in schools.
• Continue efforts to stock quick-relief asthma medicine (such as albuterol) in schools.

References
1. Evidence from Scientific Literature About Improved Academic Performance. (2024, August 20). United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/iaq-school...academic-performance
2. K-12 Education: School Districts Frequently Identified Multiple Building Systems Needing Updates or Replacement Report to Congressional Addressees United States Government Accountability Office. (2020). United States Government Accountability Office. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-494.pdf
3. Schools. (2021). ASCE’s 2021 Infrastructure Report Card; American Society of Civil Engineers. https://infrastructurereportca...ools-infrastructure/
4. Results from the Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey. (2024, September 5). U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-pr...youth-tobacco-survey
5. Parents, Students, and Healthy Indoor School Environments. (2023, June 28). United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/iaq-school...-school-environments