With support from a broad-based coalition led by Healthy Schools Network, New York State has adopted environmental reform policies embodied in a five-point, child-centered set of "Guiding Principles for School Environmental Quality". Healthy Schools Network has since worked to secure new laws, funding, and regulations to promote healthier school environments, including the measures for occupant health in schools under renovation, notice of pesticide use, bans on arsenic and elemental mercury, and an executive order on "green" cleaning products that has been extended to all public and private schools state-wide.

Our Campaigns

• Healthy & High Performance Schools
  
• Green Cleaning
  
• Children's Environmental Health Services
  
• NYS Legislative Program

	Symposium and Benefit Reception May 2008 New York State First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson delivers opening remarks at Healthy Schools Network's benefit reception at the New York Times Building in New York City.
Symposium and Benefit Reception May 2008 Richard Iannuzi (President, New York State United Teachers) presents Healthy Schools Hero award to Dr. Phil Landrigan (Mount Sinai School of Medicine) at Healthy Schools Network benefit reception in New York City.
	Children's Environmental Health Symposium March 2008 Symposium attendees listen to panelists discuss toxic chemicals in children's toys and jewelry (Albany, NY).
Queens Press Conference February 2008 New York City Councilman James F. Gennaro, New York State Assemblyman Rory Lancman and Stephen Boese, New York Director of Healthy Schools Network gathered at a school construction site in Jamaica, Queens to call on the NYS Legislature to approve Legislation to protect children from schools built on hazardous sites and to allow environmental and community reviews for leased NYC school properties.
	Greening Schools for Healthy Children Forum October 2007 North Babylon, NY: New York State Assemblyman Robert Sweeney accepts a 2007 Healthy Schools Hero Award from Assemblyman Englebright, a former honoree, and from two HSN Board Members Jeff Jones and Neal Tepel.
Schenectady Energy Fair October 2007 NYSERDA President Paul Tonko speaks with Steve Boese at the Healthy Schools Network booth located at the Schenectady Energy Fair.
	Unwanted Exposure Report Press Conference April 2007 The Children's Environmental Health Partnership/NYS, co-led by HSN and the Learning Disabilities Association of NYS, released a status report on children and the environment.
Children's Environmental Health Leadership Symposium October 2006 Albany, NY: (from left to right) Jeff Jones, HSN Board Member; Kathy Curtis, Clean NY; Assemblyman Steve Englebright; Claire Barnett, Executive Director, HSN; Heather Loukmas, Executive Director, Learning Disabilities Association of NYS; Stephen Boese, NYS Director, HSN; Ramona Trovato, HSN Board Member.
	Healthy Schools Day in New York April 2006 Albany, NY: (left to right) Jeff Jones, HSN Board Member; Assemblyman Steve Englebright; Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver; Claire Barnett, Executive Director, HSN; Stephen Boese, New York State Director, HSN; John Green, New York State United Teachers.
Children's Environmental Health Lobby Day March 2006 Albany, NY: (left to right) Philip Landrigan, MD, Director of the Center for Children's Health and Environment at Mount Sinai Medical Center; Kathy Curtis, Clean NY; Heather Loukmas, Learning Disabilities Association of NYS; Senator Jim Alesi; Stephen Boese, Healthy Schools Network.

OUR CAMPAIGNS

Healthy & High Performance School Design

Our goal is to help shape initiatives that will transform the built environment to include health and learning benefits for all children. Healthy and High Performance schools improve children’s health, energy efficiency, and teacher and school staff job satisfaction, enhance student performance, and provide a healthier environment for building occupants.

In 2006, NYSERDA (The NYS Energy Research and Development Authority) and the NYS Education Department released NY-CHPS, comprehensive healthy and high performance school design guidelines for NYS schools. Healthy Schools Network worked to bring the NYS Education Department and NYSERDA together to create these guidelines and then served as an advisor to the project during its development.

These guidelines were adopted in 2007 and are now available at...
                                                                                      http://www.nys-cma.org/NY-CHPS%20September%202007.pdf.

Green Cleaning

Cleaning products that are used at school can contain harmful and toxic chemicals that can affect the health of children, as well as janitorial staff and school employees. Children are more vulnerable to these toxins because they eat, breathe, and drink more per pound of body weight than adults and when exposed to these harmful chemicals, children can have long term health problems.

In 2005, HSN helped secure the country's first executive order and the first state-wide law requiring the use of "green" cleaning and maintenance products in state agencies and all public and private schools. This law went into effect for all New York State schools in September 2006.

Since then we have spearheaded the creation of a National Work Group on Green Cleaning in Schools, with train the trainer tools and model bill text. For more information visit www.cleaningforhealthyschools.org

Children's Environmental Health Services in New York

We are thrilled that our advocacy has resulted in securing over $1.5 million to expand the provision of pediatric environmental health services statewide in New York, thank to the generosity of State Senator Carl Marcellino and Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, both of Long Island, and thanks to the collaborative work of our colleagues at LDA-NY and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

We are also thrilled that the New York State Department of Health is convening its legislatively mandated Advisory Council on Children's Environmental Health in 2009.

Our Goals-to ensure that state funds are spent to promote preventive public health services for children that both the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health have specific and complementary roles in protecting the health and safety of New York's children from environmental risks.

Unwanted Exposure Report (2007)

Unwanted Exposure: Preventing Environmental Threats to the Health of New York State's Children presents a comprehensive review of the major identified threats to children's health from environmental causes and explores New York State's current policy framework for protecting children from these hazards. Unwanted Exposure also summarizes the Children's Environmental Health Partnership Symposium, a leadership summit that took place at the Capitol in Albany, on Oct. 12, 2006. The Symposium, a collaborative effort of the Learning Disabilities Association and the Healthy Schools Network, brought together leading state and national children's environmental health policy experts to address the issue of environmental contaminants, their effects on children's health and to help facilitate the work of the Children's Environmental Health and Safety Advisory Council, chapter 178 of the 2006 laws of New York.

Who's in Charge Report (2006)

Healthy Schools Network 2009 New York Legislative Program

We ask NYS elected officials to support:

• Healthy and High Performance School Design Standards for all school construction;
  
• School Siting Requirements;
  
• Parent Right-to-Know;
  
• Minor Maintenance and Repair Funds; and
  
• Legislation that: promotes indoor air quality at school; provides for annual water testing at school taps; and protects students from exposure to pesticides at school.