America’s aging school buildings are putting children’s health, safety, and learning at risk. This harsh truth was the impetus for our August Healthy Schools for Healthy Kids Summit. A new series in FacilitiesNet keeps this crucial conversation going.
The series highlights discussions from the summit, where experts sounded the alarm on deteriorating infrastructure, poor indoor air quality, extreme weather, and a staggering $90 billion annual school facilities funding gap. The articles underscore why investing in healthy, safe, and resilient schools is not just a facilities issue, it’s also a children’s health imperative.
Read the two-part series:
- Part 1: Aging School Buildings Pose Health Risks to Students
- Part 2: Why K-12 Schools Need Funding for Healthy, Safe Facilities
New Report Raises Alarms About Federal Pollution Safeguards and Children’s Health
A new report from the Environmental Protection Network (EPN)raises serious concerns about the growing risks to children’s health as federal environmental protections are weakened or delayed. The report highlights more than 30 federal actions affecting pollution safeguards amid the rapid expansion of AI data centers, weakened protections against PFAS (“forever chemicals”) and other toxic pollutants, and regulatory decisions that fail to adequately consider children’s unique vulnerability to environmental hazards. With developing brains, lungs, and organs, children face heightened risks from pollutants in the air they breathe, water they drink, and food they eat, exposures that can have lifelong consequences.
The numbers underscore what’s at stake: 33.5 million children, including nearly 2.4 million with asthma, live in counties receiving failing grades for ozone or particle pollution. Approximately 500,000 children have elevated blood lead levels, while 96 percent of US adolescents have four or more PFAS chemicals detected in their blood. As Jeanne Briskin, former Director of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection, emphasizes, families cannot protect children from environmental hazards on their own. Strong federal safeguards are essential to protecting children’s health in their homes, schools, and communities.
Read more here: press release and report.
October is Children’s Health Month. Make it Count!
Children’s Environmental Health Month provides an opportunity to turn awareness into action.
This October, choose one action for healthier schools:
- Ask your district about its preventive-maintenance plan.
- Find out who coordinates indoor air quality in your school.
- Share the new GAO report detailing poor conditions in schoolswith local and state decision-makers.
- Review your school’s plans for extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, and other environmental emergencies.
- Share resources on children’s environmental health with families, educators, school nurses, and community partners.
- Start a conversation about what investments are needed to make every school a healthier place to learn.
October gives all of us an opportunity to bring greater attention to the places where children spend so much of their time and to keep building the knowledge, partnerships, and public commitment needed for healthier schools.
National Lead Prevention Week: October 25-30, 2026
Lead exposure remains an important concern for children’s environmental health. A new federal resource can help communities find information and assistance.
In February 2026, the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children released an interim Federal Lead Resource Guide. The guide brings together federal lead-related resources, programs, and assistance opportunities, including awareness materials, financial opportunities, regulatory resources, technical information, toolkits, and guidance documents.
It’s a useful resource to bookmark and share with school leaders, families, housing and health partners, and community organizations.
Explore the federal resource guide
Keep Kids Safe from Lead: Know History, Change the Future will explore lead poisoning’s history, prevention, policy, and community impact and help keep Maryland kids safe from lead. The summit will bring together public health professionals, healthcare providers, housing and community partners, advocates, and others working to prevent lead exposure and protect Maryland children and families. Through expert presentations, panel discussions, and opportunities for connection, participants will explore the history of lead poisoning in Maryland, lead and pregnancy, testing and prevention, affected properties, policy and systems change, and the experiences of families and communities impacted by lead.
Federal Children’s Health Resources to Share
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) offers research and educational resources explaining why children can be especially vulnerable to environmental exposures and how environmental factors can affect health and development.
Children’s Health: Why the Environment Matters examines issues including air pollution and other environmental exposures, while the Children’s Environmental Health portal connects stakeholders with research, factsheets, educational materials, and additional resources.
NIEHS also supports Kids Environment, Kids Health, which provides educational environmental health materials for children, parents, and teachers.
Explore NIEHS children’s environmental health resources
Federal Resource Spotlight: Start With Your School Building
Want a practical Children’s Health Month activity?
Take a closer look at your school environment.
EPA’s Healthy Schools Checklist is a voluntary assessment tool designed to help schools examine their current environmental health conditions and identify opportunities to reduce or prevent exposure to common environmental health hazards.
School administrators, facilities personnel, teachers, nurses, parents, and other stakeholders can use October as an opportunity to ask:
How healthy is our school environment—and what can we improve?
