About the Guidelines

 These guidelines were modified from Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) and Centers for Disease Control’s Air Quality and Outdoor Activity Guidance for Schools and Wildfire Smoke: A Guide for Public Health Officials, as well as the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) Wildfire Smoke: Considerations for California’s Public Health Officials, and are in accordance with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s guidelines for schools. 

•  They were developed through a collaboration of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District (NSCAPCD), and the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE).

•  They are meant to assist school districts in making decisions when air quality is poor because of wildfire smoke or other airborne pollution. School closure is ultimately a district-by-district decision based on local conditions.

•  Families always have the right to keep their children home from school if they are concerned for their child’s health and are encouraged to talk with their child's pediatrician and school administrator or teacher if they wish to do so.

About Children’s Vulnerability to Wildfire Smoke

•  Children are considered more vulnerable to smoke because their developing lungs make them more sensitive to the impacts of smoke, they inhale more air per pound of body weight, and spend more time outside and engage in more vigorous activities than adults.

• Wildfire smoke can exacerbate issues such as asthma, COPD, bronchitis, or pneumonia, or result in more severe symptoms for individuals with COVID-19 or other respiratory diseases.

Choosing to Use the Guidelines

•  School districts will monitor the air quality index (AQI) using EPA’s AQI monitoring tools at Fire.AirNow.gov, which aggregates data from Purpleair.com and Airnow.gov.

•  School activities and closures decisions will be made based on fire.airnow.gov measurements and local conditions, such as the availability and quality of air filtration and direct observation of indoor/outdoor air quality.

•  School districts will report any school closures to SCOE for media notification. 

•  School districts will announce any closures to families using normal school closure procedures (ParentSquare, email, social media, etc.).

•  Children with respiratory or heart conditions are vulnerable to poor air quality and may require extra precautions. School districts should advise parents to consult with their child's health care provider to develop a plan of action before smoke creates a hazardous air situation.

About Masks

• When air is unhealthy, the best protection is to reduce physical activity and stay indoors with windows and doors closed, in a location with well-filtered air. If indoor temperature is high, get to a location with cleaner, filtered air such as a public library, shopping mall or other building with HVAC system filtration.

• Masks have limitations. Surgical gauze masks provide limited protection from smoke. N95 respirators are designed for professional use by trained adults and are not intended for children, although KN95 or KF94 masks can provide similar protection against the fine particulate matter that is the main component of wildfire smoke.  No N95 respirators are currently certified for use by children. There is insufficient data to support the benefit to children of prolonged use of N95 respirators in wildfire smoke events.

• While face coverings are still recommended for protection against COVID-19, cloth or medical procedure (surgical) masks will still provide the best protection against the virus for children and may afford SOME protection against smoke. 

• Masks must be kept clean and replaced frequently to be effective.

Recommendations for Ensuring Cleaner Air at School

•  Install and maintain HVAC air conditioning system with high-quality HEPA air filters that have medium or high efficiency. EPA recommendations for air filtration are given here.

• Consider installing indoor air quality monitors to assess indoor air quality throughout the day.

• Install portable, non-ozone-forming HEPA air purifiers in classrooms where possible. See approved filters here.

• Check manufacturer instructions to ensure that portable filters are sized correctly for the room.

• Because high-efficiency filters and portable air cleaners may be difficult to find during periods of intense wildfire smoke, it is highly recommended that such products be obtained in advance.

• Ensure doors and windows are sealed tightly. Minimize air movement in and out of the room.

• Some brief outdoor exposure during smoke events may be necessary to transport children to and from school or in-between classes in outdoor passageways. Keep these exposures as brief as possible and consider encouraging the use of masks during these times, if appropriate.

• Interim Guidance for Ventilation and Air Quality in Indoor Environments

Considerations for Altering the School Day or Communicating with School Families

•  When messaging school families about air quality or related alterations to the school day, ensure that messaging is multilingual and accessible to people of different abilities or circumstances, people who are vision impaired or have low literacy levels, or may lack internet access, either because of socioeconomic issues or outages caused by natural disaster.

• The Bay Area Regional Quality Messaging Steering Committee has developed an air quality messaging toolkit that includes guidance for communicating with vulnerable populations.

• If you are considering closing school because of poor air quality, please remember that closing schools may leave some students without a safe place to go, and that closing schools may cause low-income students to lose access to lunch, depriving them of an important source of nutrition. Additionally, it may create a hardship for working parents who may not be able to arrange supervision for children who are not in school.

1- Asthma Symptoms: Air pollution can make asthma symptoms worse and trigger attacks. Symptoms of asthma include coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, and chest tightness. Even students who do not have asthma could experience these symptoms. If symptoms occur, the student might need to take a break, do a less intense activity, stop all activity, go indoors, or use quick-relief medicine as prescribed. If symptoms don’t improve, seek medical help.