Climate Resilient California Schools

As Californians confront ahistorically extreme weather patterns and weather-related crises such as urban wildfires, researchers at Stanford Medicine convened stakeholders including physicians, health researchers, and educators to examine the challenges of extreme weather from the perspective of children’s health and learning. Their report draws on state, national, and global research to survey the impacts of extreme weather, including heat waves, wildfires, poor air quality, and floods, and related disruptions such as power outages and school closures. Critically assessing the readiness of California’s 11,000 public K-12 schools to safeguard students from these harms, the authors propose a planning process and aligned investments to increase resilience. While California is foregrounded, the report treats issues that are broadly relevant to policy makers and system stakeholders in any state.

• Part 1 dives deeply into the evidence of the impact of extreme weather and environmental hazards on children’s physical health, mental health, and access to educational opportunity.
• Part 2 examines schools’ current capacity to safeguard and support students.
• Part 3 lays out a vision of resilient schools. A section on buildings and grounds considers the contribution to resilience of construction practices and materials, energy generation and storage, environmental systems including HVAC, water, food, transportation, and schoolyards. A section on the school community discusses ways that schools can support students’ mental health and mitigate the trauma of extreme weather and natural disasters.
• Part 4 recommends a process for state policymakers to pull together a coherent master plan for resilient schools. Authors describe the essential elements of a plan, discuss the timing of policy development and implementation, and evaluate both the costs of investment and the potential cost-savings to be gained by making school operations more efficient and more protective of students’ health.

Authors: Lisa Patel, Jeffrey M. Vincent, Erika Veidis, Jonathan Klein, Ken Doane, Jamie Hansen, Zoe Lew, Andra Yeghoian