The Complicated Nature of Indoor Air Quality

Focus: SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

The return to in-person learning in schools was both welcomed and uncertain. Administrators, teachers, staff and students were greeted with new guidelines, protocols, technologies and practices due to the ongoing pandemic, including new scrutiny over indoor air quality.

Consider this: On any given weekday during the school year, one sixth of the U.S. population spends time in a public school. This includes nearly 51 million children and more than three million public school teachers. Schools also host events during non-school hours throughout the year.

Given the dynamic role of schools in daily life, indoor air quality, or IAQ, is of the utmost importance. However, the sheer volume of factors at play, including the age and structure of school buildings, can make measuring, controlling and ultimately improving indoor air difficult. IAQ in schools is complicated, something school leaders and their teams know first-hand.