Educators, lawmakers and advocates are focused on creating healthy classrooms across Connecticut. The CEA is advocating for the passage of a bill that would allow school air quality projects to qualify under the school construction program.
“We really want thriving students and in order to do that, we have to have healthy buildings,” CEA Vice President Joslyn Delancey said.
Educators, lawmakers and advocates are focused on creating healthy classrooms across Connecticut.
“Any person that enters a school is breathing the air there and it impacts the work we do. Poor air quality can cause asthma, it can cause all sorts of breathing issues,” Delancey said.
The group is advocating for the passage of a bill that would allow school air quality projects, like installing HVAC systems, to qualify under the school construction program.
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Districts would then be reimbursed for projects.
"Those reimbursements come on a sliding scale based on need. It is a commitment, acknowledgment and a long-term commitment to fund and support municipalities in their efforts to provide safe, healthy school environments," CEA Legislative Coordinator and member of School IAQ Working Group Louis Rosado Burch said.
“Putting it into school construction grants would allow for schools to put plans forward that build either new buildings or do improvements on old buildings and include HVAC within that piece of the construction,” Delancey said.
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Co-director of the asthma center for Connecticut Children’s, Jessica Hollenbach, said students and teachers can be impacted by poor ventilation in a number of ways.
“You can have coughing, from poor indoor quality, you can have wheezing, you can have a runny nose, you can have itchy eyes, some people experience headaches,” Hollenbach said.
The Connecticut Working Group on School Indoor Quality is leading the cause. The state group was founded in 2022 after the pandemic to advocate for policy change on the state level.
“There were a number of schools in Connecticut that were not able to reopen after the pandemic because they were unable to meet basic health and air quality standards,” Rosado Burch said.
The bill has passed the education committee and will next be taken up on the house floor.
