Avoided Costs and Litigation Risk

The considerable costs of poor school IEQ are paid by students, staff, parents, and the local community. In the school populations, the costs include poor health, reduced learning effectiveness, and increased frustration when IEQ problems become unmanageable. These costs are difficult to quantify. More easily counted are the strained budgets and staff resources expended by districts for facility repairs due to insufficient maintenance, community-relations damage control, litigation and workers compensation claims. In addressing such problems, schools must use resources that would otherwise be available for educational and other programs.

Poor school IEQ can cause both short-term (reversible) and long-term (chronic) effects in students and staff. Overcrowded, poorly ventilated classrooms contribute substantially to the spread of infectious diseases, such as colds and influenza. Poorly maintained carpets, dirty air ducts, and water-damaged materials are prime breeding grounds for a plethora of substances that can trigger asthma attacks, sensitize allergy-prone individuals, and cause sinus and respiratory infections.

One of the ramifications of school building neglect and its consequent adverse effects on IEQ is the potential for litigation from students, parents, and/or staff. Crisis stage IEQ problems can be extremely costly, litigious, and detrimental to long-term relations among school administrators, staff, parents, students, and public agencies. The fiscal, political, and social costs of addressing a crisis situation are often far larger than anticipated. Schools may close temporarily when a formerly manageable problem becomes a financial, logistic, and emotional crisis. Besides the costs of conducting emergency repairs, a school closing requires alternative space and making up missed classes. Re-opening schools that have been closed is also a difficult process, due to the logistics of inspections, the uncertainties of authority, and the residual fears. Workers' compensation claims by school staff are another financial cost to districts when IEQ complaints escalate.

The threat of increasing IEQ problems, recognition of adverse health effects from indoor air exposures, and the litigious nature of societal interactions warn that poor IEQ in California schools can threaten the financial stability of local school districts.

A number of lawsuits have been filed against California school districts. For example, after complaints, investigations, and legal actions spanning more than three years, a student received a cash settlement for damages from "contaminated air" in his junior high school classroom. At the same time a third of the school staff filed workers' compensation claims for respiratory and other health problems. In other states, lawsuits have been settled for millions of dollars. In a school district in Washington, D.C. leaky school roofs and other IEQ problems prompted a judge to order 21 school buildings to close due to the resultant potential fire hazard. It is clear that for each incident that makes the evening news or is adjudicated in court, there are many less publicized cases occurring in other districts.

Building a high performance school helps protect districts from IEQ problems by designing out potential problems and documenting the health of the facility.