EPA’s Voluntary Guidelines for States: Development and Implementation of a School Environmental Health Program will help states establish and sustain environmental health programs for K-12 schools. The guidelines present recommendations, case studies, and resources that will help states build or enhance an existing program. This website includes an overview of the guidelines, as well as links to additional information and resources.

State School Environmental Health Statutes At-a-Glance Updated

Several effective state environmental health programs for schools have been built on a foundation of state policies and standards that support, promote, or require schools and school districts to implement practices that promote environmental health. States are encouraged to identify and implement existing policies and standards that can help establish a robust school environmental health program, and to consider whether there are additional opportunities to protect children’s health through the development of additional statewide policies or standards for healthy schools. The New Appendix E State School Environmental Health Statutes At-a-Glance provides model schools environmental health legislation by state. Appendix E is a useful resource for state lawmakers and decision makers seeking model statutes that support school environment health.

• Basic information about the guidelines
  • What is an effective state environmental health program for schools?
  • Why are school environmental health programs important?
  • Why did EPA issue the guidelines?
  • What can states do?
  • How can the guidelines be used?
• Read the guidelines
• Download a factsheet about the guidelines

To complement the guidelines, EPA has developed a model K-12 school environmental health program as a resource that states can customize and share with schools and school districts to help them establish, or enhance an existing, school environmental health program. The model program identifies five broad components of environmental health issues encountered in schools and actions schools and school districts can take to address them. Learn more about the model program, the five components, and how schools and school districts can use the model program to advance their environmental health activities.

An addendum to the guidelines provides best practices and lessons learned from five state grantees who were awarded funding by the U.S. EPA to implement or enhance a state school environmental health program.