Governor Kathy Hochul
Next school year, New York schools have to follow a new law protecting students and staff from the heat.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation requiring schools to create plans for monitoring indoor temperatures and responding whenever they hit 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
The law says that the plans have to manage heat-related risks and keep the learning environments safe and comfortable. They have to take steps to cool students down, like turning on fans, drawing the blinds, opening the windows, turning off lights and electronics, and taking water breaks.
Classrooms and support spaces must be evacuated if it hits 88 degrees Fahrenheit inside, and parents have to be notified. School officials have to take the temperature in the center of a room, three feet from the ground, at a “shaded location.” But the law did carve out exceptions for kitchens, where cooking food would turn the heat up.
Districts have to finalize their heat management policies by September 1. The law applies to all public schools, including union free, central, and city districts, as well as Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES. The law also adds heat emergencies to school emergency response plans, which have to include evacuation routes, shelter locations, and medical protocols for extreme heat days.
The law doesn’t fund any upgrades, so schools have to stay within existing, established budgets.
Before this, the state only mandated minimum classroom temperatures, with no rules for maximums. The Property Maintenance Code of New York State currently requires a minimum temperature of 65 degrees in all workspaces in buildings across the state.
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