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Healthy Schools and Childcare Program

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Meet the Team


The Healthy Schools and Childcare Program provides environmental health consulting, school/childcare facility assessments and indoor environmental investigations, conducts research, helps develop effective strategies to improve the indoor environmental conditions in their facilities, and training for district staff. The Healthy Schools and Childcare Program is located within the Office for Community Impact at Children’s Mercy.

Our Purpose


The Healthy Schools and Childcare Program believes that health schools = health, high performing kids! We are here to assist your school district or childcare organization in developing effective strategies for long-term improvement of the indoor environmental conditions in your school or childcare facility.

ABCs and 123s of Healthy Schools

Why is a healthy school important?


Children with major chronic diseases such as asthma, immunocompromised, heart or autoimmune disease, or lead poising, can experience significant health and safety exposures when attending schools that have issues such as:

In some cases, environmental exposures to pests, dust mites, low levels of relative humidity, inadequate ventilation, high levels of volatile organic compounds, mold spores, etc. can lead to eye, nose, and throat irritation, headaches, and even bloody noses. Over time, these exposure risks can lead to the decreased learning capabilities and an increase in absences.

What is a School Assessment?


Within the Healthy Schools and Childcare Program, we provide in person school assessments to the school districts we serve.

  • Our team of Environmental Hygienists and Health Educators provide in-person assessments to schools that are interested in improving the school environmental conditions.

  • The in-person school assessment includes a visual assessment of the school safety and health concerns, indoor air quality measurements, ventilation measurements, and education and goal setting with school administrators. This process can take a few days up to a few weeks depending on the size of the school building.

  • After the school assessment, school administrators receive a report that includes the findings, issues, and actions recommended.

3 Environmental and Health Assessment Tools

Heathy Schools and Childcare Available Trainings

This presentation focuses on getting administrative buy-in from key stakeholders in district administration (board members, superintendents, principals, etc.). It provides data to support the idea of implementing a Healthy Schools Program. It also provides a photographic walkthrough of a typical school facility, which points out both good and bad conditions routinely found in schools. 

This training focuses on helping nurses identify the common signs of an asthma attack, treatment options, inhaler care and use, and medicine/inhaler storage recommendations. The last 30-45 minutes of the training focuses on the environmental component of asthma, providing examples of common asthma triggers and other conditions that may impact occupant health in schools. 

The goal of this presentation is to provide building occupants with best practices for setting up and maintaining healthy conditions in their classrooms, offices, etc. throughout the school year. Since about half of the issues we routinely identify in schools are occupancy-related, this training is focused on educating staff about common items and behaviors that can have a negative impact on occupant health. 

This training was developed primarily for lead custodians, building managers, and other involved in the daily facility care and maintenance, but we've also had Facility Directors, nurses and other district staff participate in these trainings. 

What is the Healthy Schools and Childcare Program?


The Safe and Healthy School Partnership Program is a comprehensive indoor environmental quality management program that integrates the Environmental Protection Agency’s Tools for Schools Indoor Air Quality Program. 
 
The Center for Environmental Health at Children's Mercy has been conducting environmental health assessments in school facilities since 1995. We have expanded our school assessment and consulting activity to include education and training programs to help school districts improve staff awareness, education, and training on the indoor environmental health in schools. 

Goals of the Program

  • Help school districts develop and maintain healthy indoor environments that facilitate productive learning and productive teaching.  
  • Collaborate with district staff to evaluate district facilities utilizing CMH, EPA TfS, and district-specific best practices and methods.  
  • Assist in the implementation of long-term, sustainable, indoor environmental health programs for school districts in order to develop effective indoor environmental quality-management programs that improve the health of all building occupants 

Safe and Healthy School Partnership Activities 


Components of the program include: 

  • “Healthy School Specialist” training for Building Team Leaders  
  • Free copies of the CEH Indoor Environmental Quality Resource Manual  
  • Assistance in the development and implementation of School Indoor Environmental Quality Management Programs 
  • Hands-on training on how to conduct indoor environmental quality assessments of district buildings 
  • Pre-Intervention Walk-through and Quantitative Assessments 
  • Develop and Facilitate Implementation of Recommendations for Environmental Management 
  • Post-Intervention Assessments  

Our team works with school district’s Safe & Healthy School Coordinators to help implement this approach to managing indoor environmental health issues. We assist in the formation of both a district Safe and Healthy School Partnership team and individual building teams. We will use this information to identify concerns and prioritize interventions that will maintain and/or improve indoor environmental quality in each school. 

Read more about the Safe and Healthy School Partnership Activities 

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