IAQ Strategies for K-12 School Districts Updated
Center for Green Schools, ASHRAE provide fact sheets to help improve air quality in buildings June 23, 2025
By Dave Lubach, Executive Editor
The importance of indoor air quality (IAQ) in institutional and commercial facilities grew during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, when people beyond facility managers and others in the air filtration businesses started paying attention to it.
In K-12 school districts, administrators and teachers along with students and their parents started to expand their knowledge base and learned more about the terms like IAQ, ventilation and disinfectants, and started asking questions about whether the buildings they worked in and studied in were safe health-wise.
Since the pandemic, environmental organizations have worked to keep the public informed about the importance of maintaining healthy IAQ. After the pandemic subsided, concern about IAQ now has expanded to include the increasing impact wildfires are having on air quality both indoors and outdoors.
To help school districts make better decisions about IAQ, the Center for Green Schools and ASHRAE have announced updates to the School Indoor Air Quality Fact Sheet series.
Formed with the help of experts from across the country, the series is designed for school leaders without the technical background to help them make informed choices about IAQ.
The series added fact sheets on IAQ monitoring and wildfire response while updating other sheets. An explanation of the sheets includes:
- Series overview: Builds an understanding of IAQ standards and guidelines for schools and offers strategies to achieve them.
- Ventilation: Learn how the type of building system forms the HVAC strategies that managers should consider for their spaces.
- HVAC filtration: Understand how filtration works, what makes filters effective and how to ensure their compatibility.
- In-room air cleaners: Explore how to select, use and maintain in-room air cleaners that improve IAQ in classrooms.
- Germicidal ultraviolet (GUV): Learn about the most common types of GUV systems, when and where they are appropriate in schools, and how to assess their effectiveness.
- Electronic air cleaners: Understand the technologies, how they work, what potential health concerns can exist, and what to consider when exploring alternatives.
- Disinfectants: Learn about safe options when they are recommended for use and what precautions to take when using them.
- IAQ monitoring: Discover what to measure, why it matters and the benefits of monitoring IAQ continuously.
- IAQ during wildfires: Learn strategies to plan ahead for smoke events with actionable guidance to reduce pollutant exposure and protect the health of occupants before, during and after wildfires.
Dave Lubach is the executive editor for the facilities market.
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