Climate-Resilient California Schools - A Call to Action - Safeguarding Children’s Health and Opportunity to Learn in TK-12

Oct 15, 2026

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Climate-Resilient California Schools: A Call to Action urges California lawmakers to prioritize K-12 public schools in the state climate action plan with a cost-effective ten-year $150 billion investment. It warns that fires, wildfire smoke, extreme heat, drought, and other climate-driven disasters are undermining student learning and mental well-being, especially where campuses are not prepared. The report offers a master plan and 14 recommendations spanning campus facility upgrades, community resilience culture, and climate-literate curriculum changes to protect children’s health and reduce climate impacts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

Context

Recommendations

Campus

Community

Curriculum

Building a Master Plan

Who We Are

Climate-Resilient California Schools: A Call to Action Safeguarding Children’s Health and Opportunity to Learn in TK-12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Amid fires, wildfire smoke, extreme heat, and other climate-driven disasters and health hazards, California’s leading experts in children’s health and education have come together to call for a cost-effective, ten year $150 billion investment to ensure K-12 public schools can remain open and provide safe and healthy places for California’s children to learn and grow. This coalition of more than 50 stakeholders urges state lawmakers to prioritize schools in California’s climate action plan, and proposes a path to ensuring every school in the state helps to mitigate both the impacts and the causes of the climate crisis. This is the first comprehensive report on climate-driven impactson children in CA that addresses the full scope of the problem while laying out an immediately actionable plan. Context For children growing up in California today, the impacts of climate change are as close as the air they breathe. And yet, the places where young people spend the majority of their days—California’s public school buildings and campuses—remain woefully underprepared for heat, smoke, drought, wildfire, and other extreme weather events that have become increasingly frequent in California’s changing climate. Experts agree California has tremendous work to do in order to keep the state’s aging school buildings open, healthy and conducive to learning in the face of our rapidly changing climate. Prolonged time out of school disrupts students’ learning, and can affect their mental health, and disrupt their social-emotional development. The evidence is clear from the effect school closures had on students’learning and emotional health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without swift action to make California’s schools more climate resilient, children across the state will continue facing deep and inequitable learning losses and suffer health consequences from learning in facilities poorly equipped to keep children safe. 14 Recommendations Campus: How we can create healthy, climate-resilient, sustainable school facilities. Two out of five public school buildings in California are at least 50 years old—built long before we knew anything about the climate crisis. These schools rely on antiquated technologies that are expensive to repair and may create health hazards rather than solve them. To protect students and teachers from climate-related harms and to move schools closer to the State target of net zero emissions, campuses should: 1. Adopt sustainable construction practices; 2. Power schools with solar technology and battery storage; 3. Electrify building energy systems to transition away from fossil fuel dependence; 4. Upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to electric heat pumps; 5. Improve the efficiency of water use; 6. Create green schoolyards that increase shade and reduce the presence of asphalt and other impervious surfaces and create a buffer against flooding; 7. Grow food in regenerative schoolyard gardens; and 8. Electrify their school bus fleets. Community: How we can develop a culture of resilience in and around schools. Amid the uncertainty of climate change, schools must be places of social-emotional support for students experiencing fear and anxiety. We recommend that district leaders: 9. Staff schools with students’ mental health in mind; 10. Respond directly to students’ climate anxiety; and 11. Connect students with climate allies and solutions in their communities. Curriculum: How we can prepare climateliterate leaders for tomorrow’s California. Each generation must prepare the next to live in a world they cannot fully imagine; but, the challenge we face today is extreme. Many of the understandings, skills, and technologies young people will rely on in the future are unknown to us or just emerging. To adapt, innovate an

FAQs

What is the main goal of the report?

To secure a cost-effective ten-year $150 billion investment so California’s K-12 public schools can remain open and provide safe, healthy learning environments despite climate-driven disasters and health hazards.

Why does the report emphasize climate-resilient school facilities?

Because many school buildings are aging and underprepared for heat, smoke, drought, and wildfire impacts, which can create health hazards and disrupt students’ learning and social-emotional development.

What are the 14 recommendations grouped into?

They are organized into Campus (healthy, climate-resilient facilities), Community (a resilience culture in and around schools), and Curriculum (preparing climate-literate leaders for the future).

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Rhys